Nycteris grandis Peters, 1865

Mongombe, Aaron Manga, Fils, Eric Moise Bakwo & Tamesse, Joseph Lebel, 2020, Annotated checklist of bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) of Mount Cameroon, southwestern Cameroon, Zoosystema 42 (24), pp. 483-514 : 503-504

Nycteris grandis Peters, 1865

Nycteris grandis Peters, 1865: 358 .

COMMON NAME. — English: Large Slit-faced Bat. French: Grande Nyctère.

MATERIAL EXAMINED. — 4 specimens

Mount Cameroon area • 1 ♀; Mubenge - Isongo; 4°05’00”N, 9°00’00”E; 0 m; 5.III-25.III.1938; Martin Eisentraut leg.; SMNS 3448. Other localities of Cameroon • 1 ♀, 1 ♂; Sangmelima; 2°56’00”N, 11°59’00”E; 543 m; 3.III.1938; Perret J.L leg.; ZFMK 1962.0203, 0204 • 1♀; Bonge; 4°28’00”N, 12°22’ 00”E; 8.I.1957; Sjöstedt Yngve Bror leg.; ZMB 7044 .

HABITATS AND DISTRIBUTION. — It is predominantly a lowland rainforest species, but it also occurs in savannahs, and along riparian forest where it roosts in hollows of large trees, holes or small caverns in rocks and artificial structures such as disused water tower ( Happold 1987; Monadjem et al. 2010). It is broadly distributed in West, Central and East Africa ( Monadjem et al. 2017a). It forages close to the ground, in open forests, and near edges of clearings and over streams. Arthropods and small vertebrates such as frogs, birds, fish and small bats constitute the diet of this species making it the only truly carnivorous bat in Africa that eat vertebrate prey ( Fenton et al. 1983). This species had previously been signalled in the Mount Cameroon area ( Van Cakenberghe & De Vree 1985). During our field surveys, no individuals attributed to this species were recorded. This species may be threatened in some parts of its range by habitat conversion and overharvesting for food ( Monadjem et al. 2017a).