Scientists Discover Six Mysterious New Bat Species Hiding in Plain Sight for Decades.

A new species of tube-nosed bat has been discovered in the protected forests of the Philippines. A team of researchers from the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), the Field Museum in Chicago, and Lawrence University in Wisconsin have identified 06 numbers of previously unknown species of bats. These nocturnal and somewhat mysterious mammals are among the most diverse animal groups on Earth, and this discovery adds to the growing list of known bat species.

The newly described species, all from the Philippines, were formally classified through detailed analyses of both their physical traits and genetic data. These bats belong to a group commonly known as tube-nosed bats.

“This latest research serves to illustrate how much remains unknown about the countless species with which we coexist”, says Dr. Judith Eger, Curator Emeritus of Mammals at ROM. “Expanding our knowledge of biodiversity is essential to understanding and managing our environment on behalf of humanity and the other species on which the vitality of our planet depends”.

While Halloween is not as widely celebrated in the Philippines as it is in North America, the country has its own folklore centered on bats. Legends of the aswang, shape-shifting monsters inspired by flying fox bats, the largest bats in the world reflect the animal’s cultural significance. Across the globe, bats have held symbolic meaning for centuries: they are seen as symbols of luck in China, wealth and prosperity in India, and even revered as deities in parts of Guatemala and Mexico.

“I’m astonished at how much we still don’t know about the natural world, such as how many bat species there are. Before we started our research, there were only two species of tube-nosed bats reported from the Philippines”, says Dr. Burton Lim, Assistant Curator of Mammals at ROM. “We confirmed the presence of one of those species, plus another closely related species previously unknown to science. The other previously reported species was actually not present in the Philippines, but we did find five new species that were masquerading as it!”

The six newly recognised species—Murina alvarezi; Murina baletei; Murina hilonghilong; Murina luzonensis; Murina mindorensis; and Murina philippinensis were distinguished from one another using a combination of morphological and genetic analyses. Researchers compared tooth patterns, skull shapes, and fur banding while also conducting DNA testing at the ROM Laboratory of Molecular Systematics.

Bats have evolved to inhabit a wide variety of ecosystems around the world and play key ecological roles that help maintain biodiversity. Tube-nosed bats (genus Murina) are insect-eating species found across Asia that depend on forest habitats for roosting, making them particularly vulnerable to habitat loss.

[The Philippines, with its network of large and small islands, already hosted 79 known bat species prior to this discovery, making it one of the most bat-diverse regions on the planet. How bat species of the genus Murina in the Philippines differ from those from other regions in Southeast Asia has been a ROM research focus for many years. The ROM bat collection is among the most extensive in the world and includes dried skins with skeletons and ethanol-preserved specimens. In addition, the collection contains 15,000 frozen tissue specimens from 30 countries, representing 15 of the world’s 21 bat families, 120 of 220 genera, and 400 of 1,400 species].

These new species are all small bats, weighing just 4 to 14 grams each. The specimens were collected by the Field Museum starting in 1988, including from protected Key Biodiversity Areas, in collaboration with the Biodiversity Management Bureau of the Philippine Department of Environment and Natural Resources and Protected Area Management Boards.

“These bats are notoriously elusive, so the tube-nosed bat collection this study examined was cobbled together over many years, expeditions, and memorable experiences one bat at a time. As a result, it’s deeply satisfying to see our collection make such an important contribution to Philippine biodiversity studies”, says Dr. Jodi Sedlock, co-author and Dennis and Charlot Nelson Singleton Professor of Biological Sciences at Lawrence University. “I’m eager to learn what these newly described tube-nosed bats each do with their tube-like nostrils that, presumably, offer them directional smell detection. Describing them is an essential beginning, but there’s still so much to learn!”

The Field Museum has conducted fieldwork, along with colleagues in the Philippines, for over 30 years as part of the Philippine Mammal ​Project. The reference specimens (holotype) and other specimens originally housed at the Field Museum for study are now at the National Museum of the Philippines.

One of the new species is named in honour of “James Alvarez”, a devoted young bat biologist and student with the University of the Philippines; another in the memory of “Los Banos”, who tragically died during fieldwork in 2018. Another is named for prominent Filipino biodiversity scientist “Danilo (Danny) Balete”, who had been involved since 1989 with the Field Museum’s Philippine Mammal Project.

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