Rediscovery of the critically endangered Hill's horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus hilli) and other new records of bat species in Rwanda

Abstract

We report the discovery of an extant population of Hill's horseshoe bat (<i>Rhinolophushilli</i>) in Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda, 40 years since the last reported observation of the species in 1981. We also report the first record of Lander's horseshoe bat (<i>Rhinolophuslanderi</i>) in Nyungwe National Park and the first record of the Damara woolly bat (<i>Kerivoulaargentata</i>) in Rwanda. The dataset contributed to GBIF and described in this paper includes 278 occurrence records from 10 bat species of five families detected at 71 locations in or near Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda. We include a description of the morphological descriptions of <i>R.hilli</i> and present the first acoustic echolocation signatures and phylogenetic information for this species.