Dark Woolly Bat

About this species

Size

Forearm about 3.2cm

Habitat

Forest from low elevations to at least 1,056m

Range

Taiwan and parts of mainland Southeast Asia, including Vietnam

The dark woolly bat is a moderate-sized Kerivoula, with a forearm around 3.2 cm. Its dorsal coat is the darkest known among Asian woolly bats: the hairs are broadly uniform in colour rather than sharply banded. Skull proportions separate it from the similar Hardwicke's, flat-skulled and Krau woolly bats, although the overlap in external appearance means that measurements and genetic data may be needed for confident identification (Kuo et al. 2017).

The species was described in 2017 from material collected in Taiwan and mainland Asia after revision of the Hardwicke's woolly bat complex. Records used in the revision came from forest sites spanning low elevations to at least 1,056 m, and genetic material linked additional mainland populations, including Vietnam, to the new species. The authors cautioned that some mitochondrial identifications still required confirmation with morphology or nuclear genes, so its precise Vietnamese distribution remains incompletely resolved (Kuo et al. 2017).

Description: Wildlife of Vietnam guide, Wildlife of Everywhere (wildlifeofeverywhere.com)