The Turkmen long-eared bat (Plecotus turkmenicus), a rare and little-studied species native to Central Asia, has been recorded in Uzbekistan for the first time, the National Committee for Ecology and Climate Change reported.
The discovery was made in September 2026 in South Ustyurt National Nature Park, in the southern part of the Ustyurt Plateau near the border with Turkmenistan. Scientists from the Institute of Zoology of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan identified the species during an expedition.
The Turkmen long-eared bat is among the least studied bat species, with limited information available about its distribution and lifestyle. Zoologist Pyotr Petrovich Strelkov described it in 1988 as a subspecies of the gray long-eared bat. In 2006, morphological and genetic studies established it as a separate species.
The species had not been recorded in the wild since 1970, and no new specimens were identified over the following 55 years. As a result, scientific knowledge of the bat relied largely on museum specimens.
In autumn 2025, an international research team from Germany, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan rediscovered the species in Turkmenistan's Karakum Desert. Researchers documented living specimens through photographs and videos and recorded their vocalizations for the first time.
The discovery in South Ustyurt National Nature Park provides the first evidence of the Turkmen long-eared bat's presence in Uzbekistan.
The research was conducted under the IKI project, implemented by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).