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Batty the best

ROHINI RAMAKRISHNAN

Newly discovered: Batty, was found in a remote cave.

Scientists found the twisted-faced creature, called the Maclaud’s horseshoe bat, while surveying the highland forests of Guinea in West Africa this spring. German biologist Natalie Weber took the picture after finding 16 members of the species in a series of remote caves. The bat had never been photographed before and had not been seen in the wild in nearly 40 years. “Our rediscovery is good news insofar as the species is still there and as we have shown that t he distribution range appears to be somewhat larger than previously known,” said Jakob Fahr, an ecologist with Germany’s University of Ulm, who coordinated the survey. The Maclaud’s bat is one of about 70 known species of horseshoe bats, so named for their distinctive — some might say grotesque — facial features called noseleafs.

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