Two new species of bat have recently been described from the Seima Protection Forest by an international team of taxonomists led by Dr Gabor Csorba from the Hungarian Natural History Museum. The first, Glischropus bucephalus, is one of the so-called thick-thumbed bats while the second is a tube-nosed bat dubbed Murina cineracea to draw attention to its ashy grey fur. In each case the newly recognised species turns out to have been confused with a subtly different related species. Retrospective analysis of museum specimens shows that M. cineracea is actually quite widespread in hilly forest areas from India to Vietnam while G. bucephalu s is found across Indochina.
The same paper describes a second new species of Murina from Cambodia, this one named in honour of the bat enthusiast, WCS Asia director and former Cambodia Program country director Joe Walston. It was collected in Veunsai Protected Forest. Together these three new mammal species act as a reminder of the biological richness of the forests in Seima and other parts of north-east Cambodia. They also highlight how much remains to be discovered in these areas.