Discovered in 2000 in a garden in Phnom Penh, scientists from the Museum and Fauna and Flora International (FFI) noticed its distinctive features and determined that this bat has never been recorded.

Although clearly a member of the mouse-eared bat genus, this particular individual stood out owing to its distinctive light-coloured, fleshy thumbs, the large, smooth soles on its hind feet and the fact that its skull was a different shape from that of its closest relatives in the region.

The bat is now affirmed a species of its own and declared to be Hayes’ thick-thumbed myotis, named in honour of Scottish conservationist and bat expert Ben Hayes.

Hayes’ thick-thumbed myotis has never been knowingly encountered in the wild since it was first collected in 2000. Nothing is known about the bat’s behaviour, or likely roosting sites, but it seems probable that its thick thumbs and fleshy hindfoot pads evolved to help this small, insectivorous species manoeuvre in narrow spaces.

According to khmertimeskh.com

(https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501054286/new-bat-species-found-in-cambodia-gets-a-name/)