Lifestyle
Archived — This article has been archived. The information may be outdated.
Researchers recognise 8 dog-faced bat species in Americas
The Indian Express··29 Aug
Dog-faced bats in the genus Cynomops look canine but belong to the order Chiroptera, not Carnivora. Scientists long listed six species, then described two more in 2018: Cynomops freemani in Panama and Cynomops tonkigui in Ecuador. That brought the recognised total to eight. Researchers compared 242 specimens using physical traits, DNA, geography and echolocation recordings.
Prism
What It Means For You
- Wildlife guides and museum collections in Central and South America may relabel specimens once treated as a single Cynomops species.
- Bat researchers relying on mist nets still struggle to catch these fast, high-flying insect hunters above the canopy.
- Echolocation detectors can help identify which dog-faced bat is overhead when the animal itself is hard to catch.
What's Happening
- The genus name draws on Greek words linked to dogs and facial appearance, though the bats are not related to dogs.
- In Gamboa, Panama, researchers captured 56 Freeman's dog-faced bats over five nights in 2012 near abandoned wooden buildings.
- Those field records, plus genetics and call data, supported treating the Panama bats as a distinct species.
How Hidden Bat Species Get Named
- A newly described species is sometimes already in a museum drawer, waiting for finer comparison rather than a first sighting.
- Cynomops bats are nocturnal insect-eaters with narrow wings built for fast open-air flight.
- Call recordings were part of the evidence used to separate the species described in 2018.
all-news
