To the delight of environmentalists and wildlife enthusiasts, an endangered species of bat – Hill’s horseshoe — which had not been sighted for the last 40 years, has been located in the forests of Rwanda. The sighting was important since all hopes had been given up of seeing this creature as it was thought to be extinct.

Found in Rwanda’s rainforest Nyungwe, this creature has been listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2021 and there has been no information about them till now.

How do you find a bat species that's been lost for 40 years? 🦇#conservation pic.twitter.com/tmcLonb4kt

— Bat Conservation International (@BatConIntl) March 9, 2022

The consortium which found the bat, includes Texas-based Bat Conservation International, the Rwanda Development Board and Rwanda Wildlife Conservation Association.

In a statement BCI Director Jon Flanders described the rediscovery of the lost species as “incredible”, and said: “It’s astonishing to think that we’re the first people to see this bat in so long.”

The consortium had started surveying these forests in 2013 and in 2019, during a 10-day expedition, this bat was found.

Volume up to hear the first ever recording of the Hill's horseshoe bat (𝘙𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘶𝘴 𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪) echolocation call. This recording was taken during our expedition to find the "lost" species which had only been seen twice, last in 1981.

📷 Dr. Winifred Frick pic.twitter.com/dGgIlFNTpE

— Bat Conservation International (@BatConIntl) March 8, 2022

Sharing details about it, Winifred Frick said: “We knew immediately that the bat we had captured was unusual and remarkable. The facial features were exaggerated to the point of comical.”

Another three years were taken to verify this bat’s species.

With deforestation and habitat loss playing havoc, there is a race to save these bats from disappearing again. “Now our real work begins to figure out how to protect this species long into the future,” said Flanders.