A New Species for Nicaragua

Nicaragua now has 101 species of bats (or 100 if you accept the recent combination of 2 species into 1 based on a genetic study published by Simmons in 2005)!

Pale-Faced Bat (Phylloderma stenops). This is the first individual of this species captured in Nicaragua!
The white wing tips are characteristic of this species, there was no question about the identification.

 We had a record-breaking night mist netting last night. We captured 4 new species for the project. Three of these species were known to occur in Nicaragua, but had not been captured yet on this project. The fourth species, the Pale-faced Bat (Phylloderma stenops) is known to occur in Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south but had never been captured in Nicaragua. The current range map for this species had a question mark for the country.

The range map before the capture.

Our group is extremely proud and excited to say we have removed that question mark.

The range map after the capture.

The night started off slow with the only highlight being that we accidentally placed our mist nets below a group of trees where 3 howler monkeys were roosting. We had a great view of them and I managed to take a few photographs that showed they were howlers (as opposed to my previous attempts where they were dark blobs in a tree).

Mantled Howler (Alouatta palliata)

The show-stopping moment occurred around 8:50pm when our project leader, Carol, came back from checking the mist nets with a very large bat in her hands. As she keyed out the bat and relayed the species determination to Arnulfo (the leading Nicaraguan bat biologist who was working with us this past week) he shook his head no. As Carol extended the wing to point out a white patch at the tip that is the identifying characteristic for this species he jumped out of his chair and ran over to her. Carol was excited because she knew this was a new species for the project, but we didn’t realize this was a new record for the country until Arnulfo frantically showed us the range map that showed the question mark over Nicaragua!

Arnulfo Medina, Nicaragua's bat biologist, and Carol, our project leader
just after we determined the species.

Arnulfo has been netting in Nicaragua for over 10 years, looking for this species in the types of habitat he thought it most likely to occur. He had tears welling up in his eyes and his arms were covered in goose bumps.

Our shouts of excitement had the unfortunate side effect of waking up the howler monkeys roosting above us. They showed us their displeasure by shaking the branches and attempting to pee on us (fortunately the offending monkey had bad aim).  

After documenting the capture with extensive photographs and video we sent the bat on her way wishing her a good life.

New species are extensively photographed. We refer to this as the "paparazzi moment".

Wishing her well and sending her on her way.