Scientists exploring the forests of Mizoram have made a groundbreaking discovery, identifying two bat species never before recorded in India. This finding pushes the country’s known bat diversity to at least 138 species and highlights that Northeast India still holds significant secrets about its wildlife.
The discoveries were made by researchers from the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), Shillong, in collaboration with scientists from other Indian institutions and the Hungarian Natural History Museum. The findings, published in the journal Animal Taxonomy and Ecology, are based on extensive field surveys carried out across Mizoram between 2023 and 2025.
The two newly recorded species are the Indo-Chinese Thick-thumbed Bat (Glischropus bucephalus) and the Indo-Chinese Mouse-eared Bat (Myotis indochinensis). The Indo-Chinese Thick-thumbed Bat was previously known only from Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Myanmar, while the Indo-Chinese Mouse-eared Bat was previously reported only from Vietnam, Laos, and southern China.
The discovery of these species in Mizoram extends their known distribution by significant distances, with the Indo-Chinese Thick-thumbed Bat’s range expanding by about 670 kilometers westward from its previously known range in Myanmar, and the Indo-Chinese Mouse-eared Bat’s range expanding by nearly 1,300 kilometers into India.
The researchers used a combination of morphological examination, DNA analysis, and echolocation studies to identify the bats, providing multiple lines of evidence for their identity. Lead researcher Dr. Uttam Saikia emphasized that the discoveries underscore how little is still known about the mammalian diversity of Northeast India, which lies at the meeting point of the Indian and Southeast Asian biogeographic regions.
The findings address the
