Bats (Chiroptera) from Madidi National Park: an integrative assessment from field surveys, museum collections, and historical records

The Neotropical region harbors the greatest biodiversity on Earth, and bats are often the most species-rich mammalian group in local communities. Bolivia’s Madidi National Park is considered one of the most biodiverse protected areas in the world, yet knowledge of its bat fauna has historically remained limited and fragmented. The most comprehensive assessment of bat diversity in Madidi to date is presented, combining historical baseline data from museum collections and literature with field surveys conducted between 2015 and 2017. Fieldwork across 12 localities covered an elevational range from 198 to 4,814 m and combined mist-netting, harp-trapping, roost searches, and acoustic sampling. We confirmed the occurrence of 100 bat taxa, including 99 recognized species and one potentially undescribed species of Histiotus , added 25 new records for Madidi, and seven new country records for Bolivia. The Sub–Andean and Pre–Andean Amazon Forests are the most diverse ecoregions and shared the most similar bat assemblages. Overall, we observed high species turnover among ecoregions. With 99 confirmed species, Madidi currently harbors one of the highest documented bat richness among protected areas worldwide, representing 68% of Bolivia’s bat fauna. This reinforces Madidi’s status as a global conservation priority and provide a verified baseline for future bat research.