Bats of Southern and Central Africa. Ara Monadjem

species of 11 families are covered in the new version, compared to 116 species and 9 families in the 2010 edition. There are numerous improvements, including expanded and improved identification keys (matrices), additional vocalisation spectrograms, dozens of new images of skulls, photographs of live animals of species not previously illustrated, and up-to-date species distribution range maps.

      The regional, national, and international scientific communities interested in Chiroptera are indebted to the authors for their efforts to advance information on the bats of the southern portion of Africa. This new synthesis is a critical step forward in understanding the biology and natural history of bats, important for guiding new field and laboratory studies, as well as contributing to the conservation of these fascinating animals.

       Steven M. Goodman

      MacArthur Field Biologist, Field Museum of Natural History (USA) and Vice President, Association Vahatra (Madagascar)

      2020

      ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

      For a book of this nature to be valuable and original, it depends on two critical factors: the efforts of past researchers who collected, described and mapped distributions of bats in our region, and the goodwill of current bat biologists to share their knowledge and resources, such as pictures, with us. The scientific data underpinning this book are almost entirely based on the collections of bats from southern Africa that have been deposited in museums around the world. These collections are a priceless resource without which our efforts to understand the species limits and distributions of African bats would be futile. The more than 14,000 museum specimens that form the foundation of this book have been collected over the past two centuries by scores of people, the most important of whom are mentioned in the section Museum Collections and Pioneering Researchers. We would like to pay special tribute to all these collectors, and hope that this book goes some way to acknowledging their efforts.

      We are grateful to the following people who provided critical assistance: Dr Teresa Kearney, Ernest Seamark, Kate Richardson and Wendy White.

      Tina Smith, always attentive to minute detail, generously and on a tight time schedule read the entire draft manuscript, picking up what seemed like a never-ending number of errors and omissions. We thank Clare Mateke for drawing our attention to numerous errors and inconsistencies in the first edition. Thank you. Any remaining errors are, of course, our own.

      All the photographs in this book have been acknowledged in the captions. However, we would like to single out Dr Merlin Tuttle (Bat Conservation International) and Dr Brock Fenton for freely providing numerous photographs without which this book would have been far more incomplete than it presently is. We thank Petra Muller, Zoology Department, University of Cape Town, for her cheerful help with scanning batches of 35 mm slides. Paula Jenkins, Malcolm Perch, Ariya Dejtaradol and John Hanks aided and abetted searches to depict bat researchers. We are grateful to the many libraries and librarians for kind help with sourcing often obscure literature.

      We relied heavily on museum curators who gave us permission to examine their collections or loaned us specimens. These include: Dr Nancy Simmons and the late Dr Karl Koopman (American Museum of Natural History, New York), Dr Nico Avenant (National Museum, Bloemfontein), Dr Seth Eiseb (National Museum of Namibia, Windhoek), Dr Teresa Kearney (Transvaal Museum, Pretoria), Dr Robert Kityo (Makerere University Museum of Zoology, Kampala), the late Lloyd Wingate (Amathole Museum, King William’s Town), Beryl Wilson (McGregor Museum, Kimberley), Denise Hammerton (South African Museum, Cape Town), Dr Julian Kerbis, the late Dr Bill Stanley and John Phelps (Field Museum, Chicago), Dr Michael Carleton, Linda Gordon and Dr Don E. Wilson (Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, Washington D.C.), Dr Judith Eger (Royal Ontario Museum), Wim Wendelen and Dr Wim van Neer (Musée Royale d’Afrique Centrale, Tervuren, Belgium), Jim Dines, Ken Stager and Dr Inez Horowitz (Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles), Paula Jenkins, Daphne Hills and Julie Ingles (Natural History Museum, London), Dr Christiane Denys and Jacques Cousin (Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris), the late Dr David Harrison and Dr Paul Bates (Harrison Zoological Museum, Sevenoaks). A large proportion of the specimens, however, were housed in institutions where (either in the past or at present) two of us were curators: Dr Peter Taylor (Durban Natural Science Museum, Durban, 1990–2010) and Dr Woody Cotterill (Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe, Bulawayo, 1992–2004).

      Dr Steven Goodman and Dr Teresa Kearney critically reviewed an earlier version of this book, and made numerous suggestions that greatly improved the content.

      The South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) granted substantial financial support without which the quality of the book would have been severely compromised. Dr Phoebe Barnard, in particular, did her utmost to ensure that the funds were secured. We thank Phoebe and her team at SANBI for their invaluable support. We also sincerely thank the following organisations and individuals for making funds available for the publication of this book: Bat Interest Group of KwaZulu-Natal (Bats KZN), the Dorothea Behr Fund of the Durban Natural Science Museum Trust Fund, All Out Africa Foundation, and Dr Andy Moore, who also kindly commented on the biogeography section.

      We thank the University of the Witwatersrand Press for guiding this book through the publication process, particularly Tina Mössmer, Kirsten Perkins and Andrew Joseph. Tina’s professionalism, innovative ideas and attention to detail immeasurably improved the manuscript, for which we are eternally grateful.

      The current curator of the Durban Natural Science Museum, Dr Leigh Richards, was very helpful in providing access to the collections and generously assisted with skull photographs of specimens from the collection.

      ARA MONADJEM

      I would like to thank my erstwhile boss, Dr I. S. Kunene, Head of Department of Biological Sciences (University of Swaziland), for never losing her sense of humour with my erratic schedule, which has often revolved around bats and bat expeditions. These expeditions have been supported by many colleagues, assistants, volunteers and students. In particular, I would like to thank Julien Cornut, Niall Higgins, Dr Lindy Lumsden, Mduduzi Ngwenya, Dorothea Pio, Maria Rasmussen, April Reside and Tina Smith. Kim Roques, through All Out Africa (www.alloutAfrica.org), provided financial and logistical support for many of these trips. Finally, I would like to thank Tina Smith for her support, passion for and dedication to the final stages of this project. I dedicate this book to my boys: Keyan, Damian and Liam. Thank you for loving me, despite my spatial isolation.

      I have continued to receive support and encouragement from the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Eswatini, where I would like to single out my long-term collaborator and friend, as well as head of department, Dr T. A. Mahlaba. A very big thank you to Dr Leigh Richards, curator of mammals at the Durban Natural Science Museum for assisting with new distribution records and photographing skulls of newly acquired specimens. Thanks also to my wife Dr Sara Padidar for her willingness to engage in this project. I would like to thank Tina Mössmer for her diligent attention to detail and for making my life as easy as possible during the editorial process.

       Ara Monadjem is Full Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Eswatini where he has been lecturing zoology for the past 27 years. His research has taken him across much of Africa. His academic interests are mostly centred around ecology and conservation, with special focus on small mammals and birds of prey. He has published widely, including five books and 165 scientific articles.

      PETER TAYLOR

      My contribution to this book was wholeheartedly supported by Guy Redman, Director of the Durban Natural Science Museum, as well as the management of the eThekwini Municipality’s Parks, Recreation and Culture Unit. I am indebted to them and all my museum colleagues for much moral and logistic support. In particular, Rawoof Ali (late), Anita Rautenbach and Kate Richardson assisted enormously with the preparation and curation of the bat collection in the Durban Natural Science Museum. Kate Richardson, Wendy White, Juan Wood, Fiona Mackenzie,