ShukerNature: THE ELEPHANT DUNG BAT

Would possibly
Kenya’s elusive elephant dung bat be an unidentified relative of Britain’s
acquainted serotine bat Eptesicus serotinus,
as exquisitely painted right here by Archibald Thornburn? (public area)

Bats are an intrinsic insignia of Halloween – so what higher
topic to write down about immediately than a cryptic crypto-chiropteran, or, in plainer
parlance, a hidden thriller bat?

Whereas cryptozoology’s most well-known thriller bats are
distinguished by their large dimension (viz. the Javanese ahool and African olitiau –
click on right here
to learn all about them on ShukerNature), the instance into consideration in
this current weblog article of mine is of notably diminutive dimensions. Certainly,
that is the very attribute that allows it to indulge within the weird
day-roosting exercise that has incited such scientific curiosity.

Two of my
many ornithological subject guides are authored by John G. Williams (© John G.
Williams Property/HarperCollins – reproduced right here on a strictly non-commercial
Truthful Use foundation for academic/evaluation functions solely)

On 23 Might 1990, Welsh ornithologist John G. Williams (1913-1997),
a famend skilled on African avifauna, wrote me an in depth 3-page letter
regarding this thriller bat, as reproduced in full by me additional down right here for
the very first time wherever, and which supplied me with precious background
data. In 1955, Williams was collaborating within the MacChesney Expedition to
Kenya, from Cornell College’s Laboratory of Ornithology, and in June of that
12 months he encountered Terence Adamson, brother of the late George Adamson of Born
Free fame. Throughout a dialog regarding the wildlife inhabiting the
little-explored forests of Mount Kulal, an extinct volcano simply east of Lake
Turkana in northern Kenya, Adamson casually talked about a peculiar little bat
that had attracted his explicit curiosity – by advantage of its distinctive predilection
for spending its days snugly hid inside dry piles of elephant dung!

Bats are well-known for choosing uncommon hideaways through the
sunlight hours, requisitioning every thing from birds’ nests to aardvark
burrows, however there was no species recognized to science that habitually secreted
itself throughout the crevices current in deposits of elephant excrement. As a
consequence, Adamson had been keen to find all that he might relating to
this extraordinary creature.

African
avifauna skilled John G. Williams (public area)

He had first encountered one among its cryptic type throughout a stroll
by means of Kenya’s Marsabit Forest (of which he was warden). After idly kicking a
pile of elephant dung mendacity on the trail alongside which he was strolling, he noticed a
small gray creature fly out of it and alight upon a tree close by. Anticipating it
to be nothing extra notable than some type of massive moth, Adamson was very
startled to search out that it was an exceedingly small bat, with silver
brownish-grey fur, paler upon its underparts. He was particularly shocked by
its tiny dimension – its wingspan was even lower than that of the acquainted
pipistrelles, that are among the many smallest of bats. Sadly, he was solely
in a position to observe it for just a few moments earlier than it took to the air once more and
disappeared, however his curiosity was sufficiently stirred for him to make a
decided effort thereafter to hunt out different specimens of this odd little
animal.

Furthermore, Adamson additionally knowledgeable Williams that in his go to
to Mount Kulal he had succeeded in recognizing a second one – unceremoniously
ejected from its diurnal seclusion when he had kicked over a pile of pachyderm
droppings on the base of the Kulal foothills. In contrast to the primary specimen,
nonetheless, this one had flown away with out making any try and land shut by,
so Adamson had been unable to make any further observations.

 

The complete
3-page letter relating to the mystifying elephant dung bat that John G. Williams
kindly wrote to me on 23 Might 1990 following an enquiry of mine regarding this
creature (please click on every web page to enlarge for studying functions) (© Dr Karl Shuker/John G. Williams)

As Williams famous in a brief article printed throughout the June
1967 subject of the British wildlife journal Animals (which so far as I
am conscious is the one account printed relating to this coprophilic chiropteran
previous to my very own writings), and which
is what prompted me 23 years later to contact him, he too turned very
eager to espy, and presumably even seize, one among these elusive denizens of the
dung piles, within the hope of figuring out their species. And so, to his travelling
companions’ nice amusement, he made a particular level from then on of zealously
felling as many dry mounds of elephant excrement as he might, on the off-chance
that he may conjure forth one among these perplexing little bats.

Regardless of such valiant efforts, nonetheless, to my finest data the
elephant dung bat has nonetheless not been captured, and its id stays
unresolved. Nevertheless, as Williams opined in his letter to me above, one species
already recognized to science might present the reply.

The species in query is a uncommon vespertilionid micro-bat
known as Eptesicus (Rhinopterus) floweri, formally described
in 1901 by British zoologist William E. de Winton, and at the moment recorded solely
from Mali and Sudan (however presumably additionally Niger and Chad, immediately sandwiched as
they’re between these two international locations). It’s generally termed the horn-skinned
bat, calling to consideration the tiny sexy excrescences that it bears upon the
higher floor of its limbs and tail. This species resembles the elephant dung
bat typically dimension and color, however an essential further purpose why Williams
favoured its candidature because the latter creature’s id is its outstanding
choice for day-roosting inside holes within the floor, particularly among the many
roots of acacia timber.

As he identified to me, this habitat is basically fairly much like
the crevices and cracks current inside dry heaps of elephant dung, therefore it’s
not tough to consider that this species would utilise these helpful sources
of daytime roosting websites if such have been out there. And because the Mount Kulal area
of northern Kenya isn’t solely little-explored but additionally not too far past its
recognized distribution vary, this offers additional purpose for trying favourably
upon the horn-skinned bat as a practical reply to the thriller of the latter
nation’s curious little elephant dung bat.

This ShukerNature weblog article is excerpted and
expanded from my guide The Beasts That Disguise
From Man: In search of The World’s Final Undiscovered Animals.