An international team of researchers working in Peninsular Malaysia have found that the giant fruit bats known as flying foxes (Pteropus hypomelanus) are actually important pollinators for the durian (Durio zibethinus) tree, which produces a unique fruit that is highly popular through

A team of international network of researchers describes a new species of woolly horseshoe bat from Southeast Asia (Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand). The new species is described from specimens in museums world-wide including a 32 years old spirit specimen. The study (led by SEABCRU

They have typical Pipistrellus appearance but are characterized by the thickened pads at the base of thumbs. They roost in bamboo stalks but are not the flat-headed Tylonycteris of Southeast Asia nor the funnel-eared Kerivoula of Taiwan. The genus Glischropus is a group of small vespe

Flying foxes are of ecological importance to Old World plants that depend on them for pollination and seed dispersal; however they are globally threatened by habitat loss and hunting. Lyle’s flying fox is of particular interest because it is a host for the Nipah virus, it frequently l

Last year, IUCN published guidelines for minimising the negative impact of guano harvesting on bats and called for relevant studies. The first of these has now been published by Thet Thet and Khin Mya Mya of Mandalay University, Myanmar in the open-access Journal of Threatened Taxa. I

A frequent traveller browsing the tourist shops and markets of Southeast Asia and East Asia will invariably be introduced to many bats, although very dead and mounted. How are such bats collected in the wild and in what numbers? What is the volume of internet trade involving such souv

This was the title Julie and I did not use in the outreach promoting her paper looking at bite force in 35 species of Malaysian bats (we talked about dogs instead). If you said Hipposideros diadema,  you really need to read the paper, and if you said the Kerivoula you probably intuiti

Further documentation of just how wonderful Eonycteris spelaea is with a new paper out this month in the Journal of Pollination Ecology.  Pushpa Raj Acharya is the lead author, and here is a wonderful write-up on the history of Eonycteris spelaea studies and the significance of the st

A team of international scientists, led by two SEABCRU members, Dr. Pipat Soisook (Prince of Songkla University, Thailand) and Dr. Paul Bates (Harrison Institute, UK), discovered a new genus and species of false vampire. The new bat, namely Eudiscoderma thongareeae, is the sixth membe

The Intermediate Horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus affinis) is one of the most common cave species using constant frequency (CF) calls in Southeast Asia. In the past, variations of morphology and echolocation calls within the species have been observed among different geographic populations.