New genus of bat discovered in South Sudan - Toronto Star

Researchers have identified a new genus of bats marked by white stripes that make it look like a badger.

The rare species was discovered in South Sudan.

DeeAnn Reeder, associate professor of biology at Pennsylvania’s Bucknell University, spotted the animal in a game reserve.

“My attention was immediately drawn to the bat’s strikingly beautiful and distinct pattern of spots and stripes,” Reeder said in a press release.

“It was clearly a very extraordinary animal, one that I had never seen before. I knew the second I saw it that it was the find of a lifetime.”

Reeder said the bat’s wing characteristics, size and ears are so unique “that we need to create a new genus.”

Reeder has placed this bat into a new genus — Niumbaha, which means rare or unusual in Zande, the language of the Azande people who live where the bat was captured.

The bat is just the fifth specimen of its kind ever collected and the first in South Sudan, Reeder said.

The discovery is being hailed as significant.

“It hints that this new nation has many natural wonders yet to be discovered,” said Matt Rice, who is with Fauna & Flora International, an organization that protects threatened species and ecosystems worldwide.

The team’s research in South Sudan was funded by a $100,000 grant from the Woodtiger Fund. The private research foundation recently awarded Reeder another $100,000 grant to continue her research this May.