14 DAY TRIAL // Bats definitely don't rise up to the human standard of beauty. They can be damn ugly with their minute eyes and huge ears. But some bring it to the extremes with the face covered by a multitude of leaf-like skin flaps.
And they can get rave reviews when posed for the camera. As in the case of Maclaud's horseshoe bat, as biologists have managed for the first time to take a picture of the bizarre-faced creature, while surveying the highland forests of Guinea (West Africa) this spring.
German biologist Natalie Weber was the one to discover 16 members of the species in a series of remote caves. This species has not been observed 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 the distribution range appears to be somewhat larger than previously known," said Jakob Fahr, an ecologist with Germany's University of Ulm, who founded the research.
The Maclaud's bat is one of 69 described species of horseshoe bats. Their name refers to the extremely complicated and grotesque patterns of creases, flaps, wrinkles and grooves around the nostrils dubbed "noseleafs" or "horseshoe". These complex facial masks make bats famous in the gallery of ugliness!
The "horseshoe" seems to help the bat save energy expended with producing ultrasounds when they are employing echolocation, the process used by bats to "see" their environment with the help of the ultrasounds. "All horseshoe bats possess these nasal structures, but [Maclaud's] has portions of the noseleaf modified in a unique way. Like all of its frill-faced relatives, though, Maclaud's is susceptible to changes in its habitat," said Fahr.
But Guinea's forests suffer under the pressure caused by mining. "Most horseshoe bats react very sensitively to environmental disturbances. This region [of Guinea] is packed with mineral resources such as iron ore, and we fear that several of the pristine patches that still remain will be targeted by international mining companies", said Fahr.