Bat Species Richness and Their Distribution in Pokhara Valley of Nepal

Abstract

Compared with the numerous studies on Chiroptera in other countries only little information has been published on Nepalese bats. Status of bats in Nepal has not been identified and even not given more interest by the government body which is devoted to wildlife managements itself. In Nepal, out of 51 species recorded by CAMP in 2002, 2 are critically endangered, 1 endangered and 5 are vulnerable. Pokhara valley is the city of caves. Some by products reports appear on bats of As Pokhara valley out of which 11 species belongs to Least concerned (LC), 5 Not threatened (NT), 1 Critically endangered (CR), 1 Endangered (EN) which is 35.29 % of bats species of Nepal. Few roosting sites of bats have been identified in Pokhara valley. These sites are distributed in the Lekhnath municipality, Pokhara sub-metropolitan city, Bhalam VDC, Armala VDC and Hemja VDC. Among the 12 roosting sites, two are tree roosts and the remaining ten are cave roosts.

Key Words: Chiroptera, Roosts, Status, Species, Sites, Pokhara

DOI: 10.3126/init.v2i1.2522

The Initiation Vol.2(1) 2008 pp43-48