Rodent / bat ID request – Tai Forest
Hi community
During our last trip to Ivory Coast end of December where we spent one week in the impressive Taï Forest, we observed several rodents/bats for which I’m not sure about the identification or just have no clue for others… If possible, I would like to get your opinion on the 6 species listed (labelled A. to E.) in the enclosed pdf document.
Thanks in advance for your help and looking forward to reading your suggestions or agreement on what I propose in the document
regards
Samuel
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3 Comments
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Samuel Marlin
Thanks for the feedback Ben. I agree for (B) and I was actually relying on what Jon considered in his own report when he was in Taï and his rat picture looked very similar to mine :). Looking at your observations in iNaturalist, (A) looks like a Dephomys to me (very long tail, fur color, so in line with Defua rat / Dephomys defua, here also following what Jon put in his report). Given the pictures I believe it will be very difficult to give any conclusion with rodents (C) and (D)
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Ben S
One could guess that the Malacomys is likely M. edwardsi based on this study: https://ncr-journal.bear-land.org/uploads/9fceeecaf568739864042958776fc9a8.pdf. Most of my sightings were in primary forest next to creeks: is that “swampy forest” or “primary forest”? I would guess the latter, but even if I were certain that’s not enough for a definitive identification. That said, this one looks a little different and was (IIRC) in a wetter area: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/333217568.
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Ben S
Hi Samuel,
(B) Does look like a Malacomys but I don’t believe they can be identified to species level by photographs.
(E) Yes, see Venkat’s comment here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/182889866
(F) I think this is a female Hammer Bat.
I don’t know about the others, but see the comments on my observations here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=8004&taxon_id=488924&user_id=tremarctos&verifiable=any
Best,
Ben