(SitNews) - Two species of bats have been newly confirmed as Alaska residents, thanks in part to research conducted on specimens preserved among the collections at the University of Alaska Museum of the North.

The number of bat species known in Alaska has increased from six to eight with the publication of two studies in a special issue of the journal Northwestern Naturalist devoted to bat research in Alaska and Northwestern Canada. Mammal curator Link Olson (who co-edited the special issue), collection manager Aren Gunderson and two other authors re-examined specimens collected in the early 1990s from extreme Southeast Alaska and deposited in the University of Alaska Museum of the North mammal collection.

A little brown myotis captured near Skagway, Alaska, carries a numbered wing band and a radio transmitter. The antenna is visible extending from the back.
Photo courtesy University of Alaska Museum of the North

Olson said the bats were originally identified as the relatively common little brown myotis (Myotis lucifugus), which is both Alaska’s and North America’s most broadly distributed bat. The specimens bore some resemblance to the Yuma myotis (M. yumanensis), previously undocumented in Alaska but known from western British Columbia.

The two species are notoriously difficult to tell apart, despite being only distantly related, and are frequently misidentified even by experts. Using DNA extracted from dried skins, Olson and Gunderson confirmed that six specimens were actually M. yumanensis.

Among these bat skulls in the UAMN mammal collection, A and C show the steeper forehead slope of the Yuma myotis, while B and D have the shallower slope of the little brown myotis.
Photo courtesy University of Alaska Museum of the North

In a separate paper, Karen Blejwas of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and two coauthors reported the first records of hoary bats (Lasiurus cinereus) from Southeast Alaska based on recordings of echolocation calls. Like the Yuma myotis, hoary bats are known from British Columbia but were previously undocumented in Alaska.

Olson said it is not know whether the two species are relative newcomers to the state or are longtime residents that have simply escaped attention until now.

“Scientists clearly have much to learn about Alaska’s bats,” he said.

On the Web:

Special issue of the journal Northwestern Naturalist devoted to bat research in Alaska and Northwestern Canada
http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1898/1051-1733-95.3.173

Theresa Bakker [tabakker@alaska.edu]
University of Alaska Museum of the North

Source of News: 

University of Alaska Fairbanks
www.uaf.ed

SitNews ©2014
Stories In The News
Ketchikan, Alaska

Articles & photographs that appear in SitNews may be protected by copyright and may not be reprinted without written permission from and payment of any required fees to the proper sources. E-mail your news & photos to editor@sitnews.us Photographers choosing to submit photographs for publication to SitNews are in doing so granting their permission for publication and for archiving. SitNews does not sell photographs. All requests for purchasing a photograph will be emailed to the photographer.