News
Pakistan
University of Veterinary & Animal Sciences, Lahore
Key Personnel
Dr. Shahzad Ali, Zoologist
Through the ‘Bats & Coronaviruses’ project, Dr. Shahzad Ali and his team from the University of Veterinary & Animal Sciences (UVAS) collaborate with WAB-Net partners to characterize the diversity of bats and bat-borne coronaviruses (CoVs) in Pakistan, and test key hypotheses about bat-borne zoonotic virus emergence risk within Western Asia. As part of this project, Dr. Ali and his team have received training in best practices for bat sampling and biosafety (for additional details, see our discussion of ‘Field Training’ here), and are actively capturing bats and collecting non-lethal diagnostic samples at multiple sites in Pakistan. As a zoologist, Dr. Ali serves as an invaluable member of WAB-Net, and is able to leverage his expertise on to improve field sampling efforts and our understanding of bat species native to Pakistan.
Bats of Pakistan: (43 species)
Emballonuridae
- Taphozous nudiventris (LC)
- Taphozous perforatus (LC)
Megadermatidae
- Megaderma lyra (LC)
Molossidae
- Tadarida aegyptiaca (LC)
Pteropodidae
- Cynopterus sphinx (LC)
- Pteropus giganteus (LC)
- Rousettus aegyptiacus (LC)
- Rousettus leschenaultii (LC)
Hipposideridae
- Asellia tridens (LC)
- Hipposideros cineraceus (LC)
- Hipposideros fulvus (LC)
- Triaenops persicus (LC)
Rhinolophidae
- Rhinolophus blasii (LC)
- Rhinolophus ferrumequinum (LC)
- Rhinolophus hipposideros (LC)
- Rhinolophus lepidus (LC)
- Rhinolophus macrotis (LC)
Rhinonycteridae
- Triaenops persicus (LC)
Rhinopomatidae
- Rhinopoma hardwickii (LC)
- Rhinopoma microphyllum (LC)
- Rhinopoma muscatellum (LC)
Vespertilionidae
- Barbastella leucomelas (LC)
- Eptesicus bottae (LC)
- Eptesicus gobiensis (LC)
- Eptesicus nasutus (LC)
- Eptesicus serotinus (LC)
- Murina huttoni (LC)
- Murina tubinaris (LC)
- Myotis blythii (LC)
- Myotis muricola (LC)
- Nyctalus leisleri (LC)
- Otonycteris hemprichii (LC)
- Otonycteris leucophaea (DD)
- Pipistrellus ceylonicus (LC)
- Pipistrellus coromandra (LC)
- Pipistrellus javanicus (LC)
- Pipistrellus kuhlii (LC)
- Pipistrellus pipistrellus (LC)
- Pipistrellus tenuis (LC)
- Scotoecus pallidus (LC)
- Scotophilus heathii (LC)
- Scotophilus kuhlii (LC)
- Scotozous dormeri (LC)
Species occurrence & conservation status based on IUCN Red List.
