A New Horseshoe Bat with Michael Curran

Where there is a unique ecosystem to be studied, for example, a patch of tropical evergreen forest 1,000 meters up a mountain, sometimes it’s best to be pushy. Michael Curran had done his master’s research in altitudinal patterns and species richness in rural Mozambique, and when he heard about an expedition back to the area, he wrote to the researcher in charge and asked them to let him come along and catch a few bats. That risk certainly paid off, because he and his coauthors have now described a brand new species of Rhinolophid, or horseshoe bat.

Bats are mysterious creatures of mind-boggling diversity and beauty, and ecosystems like Mount Namuli hold just as much of both. Learn about all of this and more as Michael takes us on his journey of collection and description, and discover the unique story these bats have to tell.

Michael Curran’s paper “A new species of horseshoe bat (Chiroptera: Rhinolophidae) from Mount Namuli, Mozambique” is in Volume 24, Issue 1 of Acta Chiropterologica.

It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.3161/15081109ACC2022.24.1.002

A transcript of this episode can be found here: Michael Curran - Transcript

New Species: Rhinolophus namuli

Episode image courtesy of Michael Curran

See some more amazing photos of bats from Michael and his team: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/rare-african-bats

Check out Michael’s website: https://www.fibl.org/en/about-us/team/curran-michael