Distribution of Cavernicolous Bat Fauna in Ilam Province, Western and Southwestern of the Iranian Plateau

Abstract

Reports on distribution and abundance of bats from Iran exist since mid-nineteen century, but studies on this subject are very scarce and have been conducted very infrequently by European biologists who visited Iran occasionally. Until now, six caves have been investigated and eight species of cave-dwelling bats have been reported from Ilam province in south-western Iran. The present paper has also summarized additional information on 39 distribution records of 11 species in this province. In this study we visited a total of 28 caves, 23 of which contained at least one species of bat. Species recorded in the present study include Rhinopoma microphyllum, R. hardwickii and R. muscatellum from family Rhinopomatidae, Asellia tridens from family Hipposideridae, Myotis blythii, M. emarginatus from family Vespertilionidae, Miniopterus pallidus from family Miniopteridae, Rhinolophus ferrumequinum, R. hipposideros, R. euryale and R. blasii from family Rhinolophidae. M. blythii with 11 distribution records is the most widely distributed species and Khofash cave with four species and about 30,000 bats is the most crowded roost in the study area.