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50 Nor Hazwani, A.R., Shahfiz, M.A., Kaviarasu, M., Faradiana, N.M.F., Alwani, N.Z., Shahrini,
N.N.A., Wahab, A.J. & Rusli, T.
50 Nor Hazwani, A.R., Shahfiz, M.A., Kaviarasu, M., Faradiana, N.M.F., Alwani, N.Z., Shahrini,
N.N.A., Wahab, A.J. & Rusli, T.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A total of 187 individuals comprising 20 species from four families were recorded
from both corridors. Bats from the Pteropodidae family recorded the highest
number of species captured with six species, followed by Hipposideridae (5 spp)
and Vespertilionidae (5 spp). Insectivorous bats were the most species captured
in this study, with 14 species compared to frugivorous bats with six species.
There are 110 species of bats recorded, comprising 92 insectivorous species and
18 frugivorous species in Peninsular Malaysia (Lim et al., 2017; Francis, 2019).
Thus, it shows that insectivorous bats are among the exceptionally diverse group
of bats in Peninsular Malaysia.

Based on the surveys, 12 insectivorous bats species (n=108) and three
frugivorous bats species (n=4) were successfully captured in harp traps. The
results show that harp traps are more effective than mist nets in capturing
insectivorous bats. Harp traps return lesser echoes than mist nets, making it
harder to be detected by echo-locating bats (Berry et al., 2004). On the other hand,
six frugivorous bat species (n=66) and five insectivorous bat species (n=9) were
captured in mist nets. Thus, it shows that mist nests are more efficient than harp
traps in capturing frugivorous bats. This is because frugivorous bats rely
entirely on the vision for navigation, and it is unlikely for them to detect mist
nets in the forest (Francis, 1989).

Besides that, 95 individuals comprising of 15 species from four families were
recorded at PL1 (Table 2). Of these, nine species (n=75) from three families (i.e.
Hipposideridae, Rhinolophidae and Vespertilionidae) were insectivorous bats,
and six species (n=20) from one family (i.e. Pteropodidae) were frugivorous bats.
The most abundant insectivorous bat species recorded in PL1 was Hipposideros
larvatus (n=29 or 30.5% of total captured). This finding might be associated with
the presence of limestone karts or caves located about 1km away from the site
as well as rivers with rock crevices nearby the site. H. larvatus was commonly
found roosting in large colonies in limestone caves, rock crevices in both primary
and secondary forests at all elevations (Kingstonet al., 2009; Francis, 2019). This
is also supported by Struebig et al. (2009), whereby this species was found to be
abundant mainly in sites nearer the karst outcrop and tend to decrease in number
as the distance from the site to karst outcrop increased.

Moreover, there are fur colour variations among individuals of H. larvatus
captured in PL1. Of these, 19 individuals have light brown or golden brown to
dark brown upperparts, while ten individuals have bright orange upperparts.
According to Kingston et al. (2009), usually, H. larvatus has light brown or
golden brown to dark or reddish-brown upperparts. Still, occasionally it has bright
orange upperparts, presumably due to cave bleaching effects during roosting.