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Abstract:
As part of a Rapid Assessment Program (RAP) survey organized by Conservation International in southwestern Ghana, bats were surveyed in three forest reserves recently designated as Globally Significant Biodiversity Areas. We present a list of species obtained during this survey and include some previous records. The survey yielded 82 bat captures composed of 15 species. At Krokosua Hills Forest Reserve we documented the rarely recorded vespertilionid Scotophilus nucella (IUCN Red List: Vulnerable), which was described in 1984 and hitherto known from only ten specimens from Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire and Uganda. Specimens from Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cameroon assigned to Hipposideros lamottei by Koopman et al. (1995) and Grubb et al. (1999) are here re-identified as H. caffer. The known distribution of H. lamottei is restricted to the Guinean side of Mt. Nimba. Overall the bat species composition of the surveyed reserves clearly reflects a forest fauna. Not a single savanna species was present despite partially degraded forest conditions.