Research carried out on the bat ecosystems in Shei-Pa National Park in north-central Taiwan over the past three years has revealed that the two places are home to an extraordinarily high percentage of Taiwan’s insectivorous bats.
Xuejian Recreational Area has 20 species of bats from three families, while Guanwu Recreational Area is home to 19 species from three families, with the two areas combined home to 87 percent of Taiwan’s insectivorous bat species. Over 10 of the species are endemic and rare species. Official plans are to turn the areas into bat conservation zones. One of the species—the Formosa tailless leafnosed bat—was put on the protected species list by the Council of Agriculture in 2008.
Researchers discovered that the three families of bats in the two areas include leafnosed bats and horseshoe bats, and specific species of bats making their home there include the hairy-winged bag, Watase’s bat, Formosan yellow-throated bat, Taiwan greater horseshoe bat, Formosan barbastella, painted bat and Formosan tailless leafnosed bat, which is the rarest of them all.
Research also revealed that five species of the bats are thriving in their habitats, including the tailless leafnosed bat, Taiwan horseshoe bat, Formosan broad-muzzled bat, Rickett’s big-footed bat, and Formosa long-eared bat. In addition, some of the bats were pregnant, exhibited swollen breasts, and were lactating.
Chen Jia-hong, one of the researchers at the national park, attached beacons weighing only 0.3 gram to a number of Formosan long-eared bats, enabling researchers to make the major discovery that most of the bats in the national park reside in holes in trees and in crevices in tree bark.
Workers in the Xuejian Recreational Area have created 15 small bat homes in trees in the area and one larger bat home next to the visitor’s center in an effort to attract Formosan long-eared bats to take up residence there.
Six endemic species of bats have taken up residence in four of the bat homes, including one Formosan tube-nosed bat and five Formosan long-eared bats, the latter of which was seen using a specially constructed bat home for the first time. In addition, a male and female couple is living in one of the homes, but has yet to give birth to any offspring in the two years since the homes were erected.
Chen said the most unexpected visitor to the bat homes has been the Effinger’s tree frog, alone among Taiwan’s more than 30 species of frogs in caring for its eggs and tadpoles. The areas right below the bat homes provide a cool and private place that attracts the frogs.
(This article originally appeared in The Liberty Times Nov. 21.)