Walston's tube-nosed bat (''Murina walstoni'') is a species in the

vesper bat Vespertilionidae is a family of microbats, of the order Chiroptera, flying, insect-eating mammals variously described as the common, vesper, or simple nosed bats. The vespertilionid family is the most diverse and widely distributed of bat familie ...

family Vespertilionidae, found in the Greater Mekong region of

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

, specifically the Đắk Lắk Province of

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

and the Koh Kong and Ratanakiri provinces of

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...

. This species was discovered in northeastern Cambodia in the Van Sai Protected Forest. They have

tube Tube or tubes may refer to: * ''Tube'' (2003 film), a 2003 Korean film * ''The Tube'' (TV series), a music related TV series by Channel 4 in the United Kingdom * "Tubes" (Peter Dale), performer on the Soccer AM television show * Tube (band), a ...

-shaped

nostrils A nostril (or naris , plural ''nares'' ) is either of the two orifices of the nose. They enable the entry and exit of air and other gasses through the nasal cavities. In birds and mammals, they contain branched bones or cartilages called turbi ...

(hence the name) which assist them with their feeding. Walston's bat is one of 126 new species found in the Greater Mekong region during 2011. There were two other tube-nosed bats found in Southeast Asia in 2011:

Ashy-gray tube-nosed bat The ashy-gray tube-nosed bat (''Murina cineracea'') is a species in the vesper bat family Vespertilionidae, found in southern Asia, including Pakistan, northern India, Burma, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam. They have tube-shaped nostrils (hence the ...

(''Murina cineracea'') and

Beelzebub's tube-nosed bat Beelzebub's tube-nosed bat (''Murina beelzebub''), also Beelzebub bat or demon bat, is a species in the vesper bat family Vespertilionidae, found in the Greater Mekong region of Southeast Asia, specifically the Quảng Trị and Gia Lai province ...

(''Murina beelzebub''). All three species are small for bats and ''M. walstoni'' is small for a ''Murina'' bat. These three new tube-nosed bats were discovered by a team from the

Hungarian Natural History Museum The Hungarian Natural History Museum ( hu, Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum) in Budapest, dating back to 1802, houses the largest natural history collections of Hungary and the region. History of the museum Foundation In 1802, Count Feren ...

(HNHM) and

Fauna and Flora International Fauna & Flora International (FFI) is an international conservation charity and non-governmental organization dedicated to protecting the planet's threatened wildlife and habitats. Founded in 1903, it is the world's oldest international conserva ...

(FFI). All three of these bats live in tropical forests, making them endangered by

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated d ...

. It is named after Joe Walston, an expert on bats of Vietnam and Cambodia. Walston works at the Bronx Zoo in the

Wildlife Conservation Society The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is a non-governmental organization headquartered at the Bronx Zoo in New York City, that aims to conserve the world's largest wild places in 14 priority regions. Founded in 1895 as the New York Zoological ...

as the Executive Vice President for Global Conservation. The bat's dorsal fur is a medium brown and its ventral fur is white. This bat is small enough to fit in a person's hand, weighing . As of 2013, there are still few details known about them and their ecology and it is suspected there are many more species of bats yet to be discovered in the region. Vespertilionid bats have many

cryptic species In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...

. Eight new species were found in Southeast Asia between 2005-2009. The use of DNA technology has proved very useful in differentiating between the various species of ''Murina''.

See also

References

Further reading