Title
Mammalian Diversity and Matses Ethnomammalogy in Amazonian Peru Part 4: Bats
Date Issued
01 August 2021
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Velazco P.M.
Voss R.S.
Simmons N.B.
American Museum of Natural History
Publisher(s)
American Museum of Natural History Library
Abstract
In this report, the fourth of our monographic series on mammalian diversity and Matses ethnomammalogy in the Yavarí-Ucayali interfluvial region of northeastern Peru, we document the occurrence of 98 species of bats, including 11 emballonurids, 2 noctilionids, 66 phyllostomids, 1 furipterid, 4 thyropterids, 7 vespertilionids, and 7 molossids. New species based on specimens collected in this region (Peropteryx pallidoptera, Micronycteris matses, Hsunycteris dashe, Sturnira giannae, and Thyroptera wynneae) have already been described elsewhere, but noteworthy distributional and taxonomic results newly reported here include the first specimen of Diclidurus isabella from Peru and the diagnosis of Glossophaga bakeri as a species distinct from G. commissarisi. Lists of examined voucher specimens, identification criteria, essential taxonomic references, and summaries of natural history observations are provided for all species. Original natural history information reported herein includes numerous observations of roosting behavior obtained by indigenous Matses collaborators. We assess the Yavarí-Ucayali bat inventory for completeness and conclude that more species remain to be discovered in the region, where as many as 116 species might be expected. Most of the "missing"species (those expected based on geographic criteria but not actually observed) are aerial insectivores, a guild that is notoriously difficult to sample by mistnetting. Of the 98 species in the observed regional fauna, only 71 are known to occur sympatrically at Jenaro Herrera, by far the best-sampled locality between the Yavarí and Ucayali rivers. Faunal comparisons with extralimital inventories (e.g., from Brazil, Ecuador, and French Guiana) suggest that frugivorous bats are substantially more speciose in western Amazonia than in eastern Amazonia, a result that is consistent with previous suggestions of an east-to-west gradient in the trophic structure of Amazonian mammal faunas. As previously reported, the Matses have only a single name for "bat,"but they recognize the existence of many unnamed local species, which they distinguish on the basis of morphology and behavior. However, by contrast with the well-documented accuracy of Matses observations about primates and other game species, recorded Matses monologs about bat natural history contain numerous factual errors and ambiguities. Linguistic underdifferentiation of bat diversity and inaccurate natural history knowledge are both explained by cultural inattention to small, inedible, and inoffensive nocturnal fauna. ©
Start page
1
End page
199
Volume
451
Issue
1
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Zoología, Ornitología, Entomología, ciencias biológicas del comportamiento
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85114247674
Source
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History
ISSN of the container
00030090
Sponsor(s)
As always, we are grateful to the men, women, and children of Nuevo San Juan, who hosted our visits from 1994 to 1999 and were often active participants in our research (fig. 39). Victor Pacheco and Sergio Solari (at MUSM) provided crucial assistance in obtaining collecting and export permits throughout the duration of our inventory fieldwork. Partial funding for D.W.F.'s field research was provided by a Latin American Studies Program Tinker Foundation Foreign Field Research Grant, a National Science Foundation Minority Graduate Fellowship, an Ohio State University (OSU) Dean's Fellowship, an OSU Osbourn Graduate Fellowship, and a Rice University Provost's Fellowship. Additional support for fieldwork by R.S.V. and D.W.F. was provided by grants from the AMNH Center for Conservation and Biodiversity and the National Geographic Society. We thank Erika Paliza (CEBIO), Bruce Patterson (FMNH), Mark Hafner (LSU), Víctor Pacheco (MUSM), and Burton Lim (ROM) for hosting our museum visits and loaning specimens for this project. We are grateful to all the staff, students, and instructors of the CEBIO 2012 Bat Course at Jenaro Herrera, where Wendy Calderón provided crucial assistance with our fieldwork after the course ended. We also thank the 2019 Río Tahuayo field crew (Jorge Carrera, Melissa Ingala, Maria Brown, Alexis Brown, Brock Fenton, Sherri Fenton, Dave Johnston, Derek Morningstar, Miranda Dunbar, and Ariadna Morales) for splendid teamwork that made our all-too-short visit exceptionally productive. Mirjam Knörnschild and Marco Tschapka generously allowed us to use their acoustic data from the CEBIO 2012 Bat Course, and Mark Bowler, Brock Fenton, Burton Lim, Alexander Pari, and Marco Tschapka kindly let us reproduce their photographs. Mario Escobedo kindly shared with us the photographs of the Lionycteris individual from Wiswincho. Patricia J. Wynne drew figures 1, 2, 5, 12, and 38. César Medina and Carlos Olaya Orihuela kindly measured several voucher specimens for us in Lima and Arequipa, respectively. Lastly, we thank Guilherme Garbino, Burton Lim, and Sergio Solari, whose comments improved the final draft of our manuscript.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus