Bat assemblage in a karstic area from northern Brazil: seven new occurrences for Tocantins state, including the first record of Glyphonycteris sylvestris Thomas, 1896 for the Cerrado

Abstract

The Cerrado, the second largest morphoclimatic area of South America, has many limestone outcrops with caves. However, studies of the bat fauna in karstic environments in the Cerrado are scarce. We present an inventory of bats in a karstic Cerrado area in the Tocantins state. We used mist-nets to sample caves, savannas, deciduous forests, and periurban environments. We captured 516 bats of 30 species, revealing that the study area is one of richest for bat species in the Brazilian Cerrado. Seven new occurrences of bat species were recorded for the Tocantins state, and we report the first record of G. sylvestris from the Cerrado biome. We recorded 21 species simultaneously at one cave, Gruta dos Moura, which is the highest species richness of bats for a single cave in the Neotropics.