{"id":45432,"date":"2022-03-10T08:01:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-10T08:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/it-s-astonishing-endangered-bat-not-seen-in-40-years-found-in-rwanda\/"},"modified":"2022-03-11T08:06:49","modified_gmt":"2022-03-11T08:06:49","slug":"it-s-astonishing-endangered-bat-not-seen-in-40-years-found-in-rwanda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/it-s-astonishing-endangered-bat-not-seen-in-40-years-found-in-rwanda\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s astonishing\u2019: endangered bat not seen in 40 years found in Rwanda"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A critically endangered species of bats not sighted in 40 years has been found in Rwanda, with the \u201cincredible\u201d discovery delighting conservationists who had feared it was already extinct.<\/p>\n<p>But the Hill\u2019s horseshoe bat was in fact still clinging to life in Rwanda\u2019s Nyungwe forest \u2013 a dense rainforest \u2013 the consortium behind the discovery said.<\/p>\n<p>There had been no information on the population of the mammals and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2021 listed them as critically endangered.<\/p>\n<p>Rediscovering the lost species \u201cwas incredible\u201d, Jon Flanders, director for Bat Conservation International (BCI), said in a statement late on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s astonishing to think that we\u2019re the first people to see this bat in so long.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Texas-based non-profit had partnered with the Rwanda Development Board and Rwanda Wildlife Conservation Association to conduct surveys in the jungle starting in 2013.<\/p>\n<p>In 2019, after a 10-day expedition scouring the caves in the forest, the scientists found the bat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe knew immediately that the bat we had captured was unusual and remarkable,\u201d BCI\u2019s chief scientist, Winifred Frick, said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe facial features were exaggerated to the point of comical.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But it took them another three years to verify its species.<\/p>\n<p>The creatures of the night have long been infamous as fanged monsters or vectors of disease, with the coronavirus pandemic doing little to improve that image after scientists said Covid-19 probably originated in the animals.<\/p>\n<p>From the tiny two-gram \u201cbumblebee bat\u201d to the giant Philippine flying fox with its 1.5m (5ft) wingspan, bats make up a fifth of all terrestrial mammals.<\/p>\n<p>Some 40% of the 1,321 species assessed on the IUCN\u2019s red list are now classified as endangered.<\/p>\n<p>Human actions \u2013 including deforestation and habitat loss \u2013 are to blame.<\/p>\n<p>For the researchers in Rwanda, the elusive discovery marks the beginning of a new race to save the once lost species from disappearing again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow our real work begins to figure out how to protect this species long into the future,\u201d said Flanders.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-41304 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/web-capture_10-3-2022_22337_cdn.wionews.com_-1024x603.jpg\" alt=\"The Hill\u2019s horseshoe bat is currently surviving in Rwanda\u2019s Nyungwe forest. \/Twitter\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{Hill\u2019s horseshoe bat, which conservationists feared was extinct, discovered clinging to life in Nyungwe rainforest.} <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[75],"byline":[234],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-45432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-homenews","byline-the-guardian"],"bylines":[{"id":234,"name":"The Guardian","slug":"the-guardian","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default 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