Orange-furred bat from West African mountain regarded as "spectacular"

In the Guinean Nimba Mountains' caverns and tunnels, an orange-furred bat has been identified.

The bat's unusual appearance, according to researchers, made it easy for them to identify it as a brand-new species.

They called the newly identified species Myotis nimbaensis, which means "from Nimba," and speculated that it would be highly endangered and unique to this mountain region.

The scientists claim that this finding demonstrates the significance of the Nimba peaks, sometimes referred to as "sky islands," for bat diversification.

A brand-new to science bat with orange fur has been discovered in the mines and caverns of Guinea's Nimba Mountains. Several researchers, coordinated by Bat Conservation International and the American Museum of Natural History,

It's a magnificent animal. According to Winifred Frick, head scientist of Bat Conservation International and an associate research professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, "it had this bright-orange fur, and since it was so striking, it led us to recognise it was not documented previously." "It's uncommon to find a new animal. Since I was a young child, I have always had this desire.

In honour of its native mountains, the newly discovered species has been given the name Myotis nimbaensis.

"As soon as I saw it, I knew it was something different," Nancy Simmons, curator of the American Museum of Natural History and first author of the study

The researchers were in the Nimba Mountains investigating the variously collapsing adits, or caverns and tunnels. The IUCN lists the Lamotte's roundleaf bat (Hipposideros lamottei), which lives in the adits, as being in dangerously low numbers.

The newly identified species, like the Lamotte's roundleaf bat, may likewise be severely endangered and unique to this particular mountain region, according to the researchers.

A bat was named after the Nimba Mountains because, according to Jon Flanders, director of endangered species interventions at Bat Conservation International, "this finding underscores the importance of the Nimba Mountains for biodiversity."