Publication details
Complete and partial albinism: new records of the albino Lesser horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus hipposideros) in the Jeseníky Mts. (Czech Republic)
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| Year of publication | 2008 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
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| Citation | |
| Description | Complete and partial albinism is a rare phenomenon that occurs in all vertebrate groups, from fish through amphibians and birds to mammals. Albinism is a chromatic anomaly characterised by a lack of melanin. Albinism in bats may be inherited either by direct interbreeding of albino individuals or indirectly by breeding with normally coloured recessive individuals. In the second case, an incidence of 25% albinos is in the second filial generation. Total albinism in bats has been recorded in at least eight families, 38 species and 64 individuals. Partial albinism is more often and was observed at least in 11 species (e.g. Rhinolophus hipposideros, Myotis myotis, M. bechsteinii, M. daubentonii, Vespertilio murinus, Barbastella barbastellus etc.) occuring in Czech Republic. The findings of completely and partially albinotic individuals of lesser horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus hipposideros) from Jeseníky Mts. are reported. Three males were found in two caves in the Hrubý Jeseník range few kilometers away from each other. All individuals were observed only during winter censuses. One male was found every winter between 2000 and 2008 hibernating in the same cave, namely Roušarova cave. We supposed that the population of Rhinolophus hipposideros hibernates in Roušarova cave has a fixed frequency of albinotic allele, because of periodic observation of albinotic individuals over last 50 years. The project was supported by the Long-term Research Project of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic No MSM0021622416, the Grant of the Czech Science Foundation No 206/06/0954. |
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