Abstract
In this short note, we report the first records for two bat species: the Egyptian free-tailed bat Tadarida aegyptiaca and the lesser mouse-tailed bat Rhinopoma cystops from Atlantic Sahara. We recorded T. aegyptiaca at six sites, based on two trapped individuals and aural detections at four locations in the Aousserd Province and at two sites around Dakhla Bay. We detected R. cystops at three sites in the Aousserd Province, at one site east of Dakhla Bay and at one site in the Adrar Soutouf. Our findings fill in important gaps in the distribution of these two species in northwest Africa. Echolocation data for both the species are presented.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to Jean Chevalier for accompanying us on this expedition, and to Rob Martin and Alexander Lees for exploring the region with us previously and to the latter plus James Gilroy for looking over early drafts of this manuscript and for providing Figure 1.
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