Taxon name
Asellia tridens
(E. Geoffroy, 1813)
Uploaded by
National Red List Database
Taxonomic information
Scientific name
Asellia tridens
(E. Geoffroy, 1813)
Assessed taxon level
Species
Higher level taxonomic groupings
Vertebrates
Mammals
Species authority
(E. Geoffroy, 1813)
Location and scope
Specific locality or subnational name or regional name
United Arab Emirates (the)
Scope (of the Assessment)
National
Countries included within the scope of the assessment
United Arab Emirates (the)
Does the assessment cover a marine EEZ area(s)?
Not_assigned
Conservation Status
Assessed as
Data deficient
Criteria system used
IUCN
(see Assessment details)
Assessment rationale/justification
This species had been recorded in large numbers in the 1950s in two areas in UAE (Sharjah city and the Al Ain area) but is only known in small numbers from recent records. It is assessed as Data Deficient because too little is know about the current status and it is difficult to interpret the apparent decline in numbers since the 1950s. No regional adjustment is made to the Data Deficient assessment.
Assessment details
Assessors/contributors/reviewers listed
UAE National Red List Workshop
Criteria system used
IUCN
Reference for methods given
IUCN. 2012. IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria: Version 3.1, Second edition. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK. iv + 32pp pp. And IUCN. 2012. Guidelines for Application of IUCN Red List Criteria at Regional and National Levels: Version 4.0. Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK: IUCN. iii + 41pp.
URL (link) of redlist assessment or publication
https://www.moccae.gov.ae/assets/download/b352eff1/UNRL%20of%20Mammals%20-%20Report%202019.pdf.aspx?view=true
Further information
Endemism (according to assessment)
Endemic to region
Not assigned
Taxon distribution as listed in assessment
This species was recorded in large numbers in the 1950s. Several hundred individuals were observed, and several collected, in falaj (irrigation) tunnels at Al Ain in 1953 and numbersĀ were seen flying out of old buildings in Sharjah city towards the airfield in July 1954 (Harrison 1955). It was next recorded in 2005 when a dead individual, apparently hit by a car, was found in a tree-lined road in Al Ain, and again in 2015 when a few live individuals were observed in a cave at Ain al Waal at the bottom of Jebel Hafeet (Judas et al. 2018). There was a new record in 2018 from the Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah border area (J. Pereira pers. comm. 2018) and two were caught in a cave in western Fujairah during a survey in early 2018 (Jomat et al. 2018). The species is likely to be more widespread than these records indicate. Globally, the species ranges widely across North Africa south to Ethiopia and Somalia, the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East, to Afghanistan and Pakistan (Monadjem et al. 2017b). It is quite widely distributed in Arabia (Harrison and Bates 1991).
Is there a map available in assessment?
Yes
Habitat and systems
Ecological system type
Habitat
Habitat details as listed in assessment
In the UAE it is recorded roosting in buildings, falaj tunnels and caves. It is a colonial species that occupies crevices and cliffs in arid and semi-desert habitats, also roosting in caves, mines, and old tombs and buildings (Monadjem et al. 2017b).
Threats and conservation measures listed
Threats listed in assessment
Unknown. The increasing extent and intensity of urban lighting may have a negative impact on nocturnal flying invertebrates, the main prey base. Species in the mountains may be affected indirectly through falling water tables due to over-abstraction and reduced precipitation.
History
The backcasted 1996 assessment for this species is Data Deficient which matches the listing given by Hornby (1996).
Publication
Mallon, D., Hilton-Taylor, C., Allen, D., & Harding, K. (2019). UAE National Red List of Mammals: Marine and Terrestrial. A report to the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, United Arab Emirates (p. 41). IUCN Global Species Programme. https://bit.ly/2RdZCQR
