Rhinolophus pearsonii (copyright Juliana Senawi)

Cambodia has been described as one of the least explored countries in term of it bat fauna in the Southeast Asia region. However, extensive field expeditions in recent years have revealed a total of 66 species of bats occurred in Cambodia (more than double in terms of the number of species reported before). In addition, recent surveys by Chheang et al. 2013 added four new records to the country, thus increasing the species checklist to 70 species. Species recently collected were Cynopterus horsfieldii, Coelops frithii, Rhinolophus pearsonii and Falsistrellus affinis. C. horsfieldii and C. frithii were predicted to occur in Cambodia, however, this is the first physical evidence of the species recorded. Although none of the newly-recorded species are in of global conservation concern, F. affinis is evidently very rare and in this country this species only known from a single cave. Therefore, information about species and their distribution pattern are very important for local conservation action.

Cynopterus horsefieldii (copyright Juliana Senawi)

Original citation: Chheang, S., J.J.P. Bates, K. Boughey, G. Csorba, B. Hayes, S. Ith, A. Mould, S. Phauk and M. Furey. 2013. Further new country records of for bat species (Chiroptera) from Cambodia and a call for information. Cambodian Journal of Natural History, 2: 73-82.

Chheang et al. 2013. Four new bats for Cambodia