THERYA, 2020, Vol. 11(3): 495-507 DOI: 10.12933/therya-20-995 ISSN 2007-3364 Distributional patterns of the Brazilian free-tailed bat Tadarida brasiliensis in the Peruvian territory ORLANDO ZEGARRA1*, JAIME PACHECO1,2, AND VÍCTOR PACHECO1 1 Museo de Historia Natural, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos. Av. Arenales 1256, Lima 15072, Perú. Email: orzegarra@ gmail.com (OZ),
[email protected] (VP). 2 Centro de Investigación Biodiversidad Sostenible (BioS), Francisco de Zela 1556, Lima 14. Lima, Perú. Email: biojpacheco@ gmail.com (JP). *Corresponding author The molossid bat Tadarida brasiliensis has a wide and apparently continuous distribution in South America. Although it has been reported in several localities of both versants of the Peruvian Andes, the potential distribution for this species has not been formally analyzed. Therefore, we describe its distributional pattern in the territory and provide comments about the possible influence of the Andes in its distribution. We gathered occurrence records from museums, acoustic surveys, literature, GBIF and Vertnet sources, and we selected localities to minimize spa- tial correlation. After defining a minimum-convex polygon of Peruvian records as background area, we use Maxent software with bioclimatic variables to construct species distribution models. Several models were evaluated using different metrics, and the model with the lowest AICc was selected. Then, the model was projected for Peruvian territory. Tadarida brasiliensis is reported for the first time in Cajamarca, Piura and Ica departments. The potential distribution model showed two disjunct suitable areas, one for the Pacific versant and other for the Amazo- nian versant of the Andes, but connected with moderate suitable conditions in the Huancabamba Depression region in northern Perú.