The Malagasy yellow bat (''Scotophilus tandrefana''), sometimes known as the western yellow bat, is a species of

vesper bat Vespertilionidae is a family of microbats, of the order Chiroptera, flying, insect-eating mammals variously described as the common, vesper, or simple nosed bats. The vespertilionid family is the most diverse and widely distributed of bat famili ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

Taxonomy and etymology

It was described as a new species in 2005. The

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

was collected in 2003 just outside the

Tsingy de Bemaraha Strict Nature Reserve Tsingy de Bemaraha Strict Nature Reserve (, ) is a nature reserve located near the western coast of Madagascar in Melaky Region. The area was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1990 due to the unique geography, preserved mangrove forests ...

. Its

species name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, altho ...

"'' tandrefana''" is Malagasy for "from the west".

Description

It has a forearm length of approximately , a tail length of , and an ear length of . The holotype weighed . The fur of its back is dark brown, while its belly fur is a medium shade of brown. It uses echolocation to navigate and find prey: it utilizes steep frequency-modulated echolocation (FM) as well as that of a quasi-constant frequency (QCF). Its echolocation reaches maximum energy around 48.2 k Hz. Minimum frequency is 42.2 kHz, while maximum frequency is 91.2 kHz.

Conservation

As of 2019, it is listed as a

data deficient A data deficient (DD) species is one which has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as offering insufficient information for a proper assessment of conservation status to be made. This does not necessaril ...

species by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2166702 Mammals of Madagascar Bats of Africa Scotophilus Mammals described in 2005