SUMMARY: In October 2024 I photographed Egyptian Slit-faced Bat (Nycteris thebaica) at Wadi Darbat east of Salalah in the Dhofar Governate, Oman. This is ninth and most eastern record in Oman. Mammal Diversity Database (MDD), iNaturalist (iNat) and IUCN Red List (2017 assessment) do not show it as being present in Oman and should be updated to include Oman.
Paul Carter: paulcarter@pacapix.com.
Posted 2025 Jan 8.
Revised 10 Jan 2025 (as Version 2) after comments from Andrew Spalton (p. comms 9 Jan 2025).
Records of N. thebaica at Wadi Darbat
My two records are described below with images for both; I was the sole observer. They were seen along the trail that starts at the northern end of the “Wadi Darbat Boating” area car park:
#1 – 2024 Oct 18, 1932h, @ 17.105790°N 54.452950°E (acc. 20m): I photographed one individual about 70 meters along the trail. It had a distinct notch in the margin of the right ear. iNat post.
#2 – 2024 Oct 21, 2141h, @ 17.105377°N 54.452767°E (acc 10m): I saw one individual about 20 meters along the trail. It was initially flying around a thorn-tree / paper-bark tree (seemingly disturbed?) and then settled in that tree, where I photographed it. iNat post. It had no notch in the right ear and is therefore not the same individual that I photographed on Oct 18. I saw another (or the same one?) in the same area about two hours later that night, at around 2350h, but could not photograph it.
iNaturalist data for N. thebaica in Arabia
The range map for N. thebaica, as shown in iNat (2024 Nov 1) and MOL, referred to here as the “iNat range”, is based on Monadjem et al (2017). It does not show N. thebaica as present in Oman. The nearest part of the iNat range is the northeastern tip of Somalia but that is across over 600 km of ocean (Gulf of Aden). The nearest part of the iNat range over land is 900 km to the west in western Yemen. The nearest iNat record of N. thebaica to Wadi Darbat is by Carlos Bocos in southwestern Saudi Arabia, about 1200 km west of the Salalah records.
Other Records of N. thebaica in Oman
There are at least eight other sites west of the Wadi Darbat record. These include Rakhyut and Suhoor Cave (as mentioned in v1 of this report). Subsequent to my initial post, Andrew Spalton (p. comms 9-10 Jan 2025) noted that he (with others) has recorded N. thebaica from six sites (including Suhoor Cave); that Harrison and Bates (1989) described the first record in Oman at Jifjif; and that that it has also been recorded by Petr Benda. Sites mentioned in this report:
a) Jifjif, “Ginot area, Wadi Sahanawt, northeast of Salalah (17.08.5′ N 54.10.5′ E)”. Record date 11 June 1987, the cave used as an animal shelter (Harrison and Bates, 1989).
b) Rakhyut: Two observers on the same day (22 Feb 2018) show images on Observation.org that appear to be the same location which is about 3 km NW of Rakhyut. Both records report 125 individuals and appear to show bats hanging in a cave (name unknown). The record by Coen Nengerman is dated 2018-02-22 16:53 and shows GPS 16.7559, 53.3961 +/- 50 m; in GBIF this record shows as “User 0143”. The record by Martijn Bunskoek is with 1 km accuracy and also dated 2018-02-22; in GBIF this record shows as “User 4098”.
c) Suhoor Cave: There are two GBIF records one day apart (3 and 4 March 2020) by EcoHealth Alliance (EHA) that Phelps et al (2024 p5) describe as Suhoor Cave at 17.13N 54.12E which is about 10 km ENE of the airport.
REFERENCES
- Bunskoek M record: https://observation.org/observation/148857870/GBIF (2024): https://www.gbif.org/species/5218614
- EcoHealth Alliance (EHA) records: (https://www.gbif.org/dataset/7c56c0cb-66e3-4e8f-acb9-db6370c87451)
- Harrison DL and Bates PJJ (1989 July). Observations on two mammal species new to the Sultanate of Oman, Vulpes cana Blanford, 1877 (Carnivora: Canidae) and Nycteris thebaica Geoffroy, 1818 (Chiroptera: Nycteridae). Bonn zool. Beitr. Bd. 40 H. 2 S. 73-77. www.zobodat.at/pdf/Bonner-Zoologische-Beitraege_40_0073-0077.pdf
- iNat (2024 Nov): www.inaturalist.org/taxa/41192-Nycteris-thebaica
- MDD-1/13: Mammal Diversity Database (2024 Jul 13). Mammal Diversity Database (Version 1.13) [Data set]. Zenodo. Published 2024 July 13. https://zenodo.org/records/12738010
- MOL (2024): https://mol.org/species/map/Nycteris-thebaica
- Monadjem A, Fahr J, Hutson AM, Mickleburgh S, Bergmans W (2017). Nycteris thebaica. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2017: e.T14936A22014183. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-2.RLTS.T14936A22014183.en. Accessed on 31 October 2024.
- Nengerman C record: https://observation.org/observation/148942229/Observation.org. https://observation.org/. Viewed 2024 Dec 2.
- Phelps K, Al Abdulasalam Z, Al-Hmoud N, Ali S, Alrwashdeh M, Attaullah, Bilgin R, Ghazaryan A, Hamel L, Hasanov N, Natradze I, Papov G, Sidamonidze K, Spalton A, Urushadze L, Olival K (2024). Distribution of bat species in Western Asia: Occurrence records from the Western Asia Bat Research Network (WAB-Net) project. Biodiversity Data Journal 12: e132199. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.12.e132199
A note on the “Field Guide to the Mammals of Oman“:
This book is shown at NHBS as published in Sep 2024, however, distribution has been delayed (until early 2025?):
Spalton A, Al Hikmani HM, Whittington-Jones G, Baldwin RF (2024/5?). Field Guide to the Mammals of Oman.