Characteristics of the First Record of Bat (Mammalia: Chiroptera) Fauna from Peshawar and Adjacent Areas, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Abstract

The present research was conducted to explore the bat fauna of districts Charsadda, Kohat, Mardan and Nowshera, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan during July 2011 to May 2013. A total of (N=213) bats of 5 genera and 10 species belonging to 4 different families of order Chiroptera were collected. They were belonging to family Pteropodidae (1 species): the Indian flying fox, Pteropus giganteus Brunnich; family Hipposideros (1 species): the fulvus leaf-nosed, Hipposideros fulvus Gray; family Rhinopomatidae (2 species): the lesser mouse-tailed bat, Rhinopoma hardwiki Gray and greater mouse-tailed bat, Rhinopoma microphyllum Brunnich; family Vespertilionidae (6 species): the kellaert’s pipistrellus, Pipipstrellus ceylonicus Kelaart; Indain pipistrellus, Pipiestrellus coromandra Grey; Javan pipistrellus, Pipistrellus javanicus, Gray; least pipistrellus, Pipistrellus tenius Temminck; Asiatic greater yellow bat, Scotophyllus heathii Hosefield; and Asiatic lesser yellow house or Kuhl’s pipistrellus bat, Scotophyllus kuhlii Leech. Pipistrellus tenius was the smallest, however, R. hardwiki is the medium sized, moreover, R. microphyllum is the largest bats compared with all collected species. Further, S. heathii is a bat with greater body weight; furthermore, S. kuhlii can only be distinguished from the S. heathii by its small size, while all other structures are almost similar. Due to lack of education, most of the were aware about the importance of bats in the study area. This paper provided education and awareness about bats to the farmers and general the public in the study areas.