Bats play crucial roles in ecosystems, are increasingly used as bio-indicators and are an important component of tropical diversity.Ecological studies and conservation-oriented monitoring of bats in the tropics benefit from published libraries of echolocation calls,which are not readily available for many tropical ecosystems. Here, we present the echolocation calls of 15 species from the Valparaiplateau in the Anamalai Hills, southern Western Ghats of India: three rhinolophids (Rhinolophus beddomei, R. rouxii (indorouxii),R. lepidus), one hipposiderid (Hipposideros pomona), nine vespertilionids (Barbastella leucomelas darjelingensis, Hesperoptenustickelli, Miniopterus fuliginosus, M. pusillus, Myotis horsfieldii, M. montivagus, Pipistrellus ceylonicus, Scotophilus heathii,S. kuhlii), one pteropodid (Rousettus leschenaultii) and one megadermatid (Megaderma spasma). Discriminant function analysesusing leave-one-out cross validation classified bats producing calls with a strong constant frequency (CF) component with 100%success and bats producing frequency modulated (FM) calls with 90% success. For five species, we report their echolocation callsfor the first time, and we present call frequencies for some species that differ from those published from other parts of the species’ranges. This exemplifies the need for more local call libraries from tropical regions to be collected and published in order to recordendemic species and accurately identify species whose calls vary biogeographically.

PDF also available here: http://dx.doi.org/10.3161/150811014X683408