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Background Despite their abundance and ecological importance, bats are under significant threat worldwide. There is little information about their distribution, roosting, and habitat requirement for most species, making assessing which species is threatened or in need of special conservation measures difficult. The knowledge gap may partly be due to limitations of the old methods of studying bats which mainly involved capture/or observational techniques. Material and methods In order to evaluate the potential of identifying insectivorous bats by their echolocation calls in the Sahelian zone of northern Cameroon, 65 bats belonging to five species were captured using standard mist netting: Mops condylurus , Chaerephon major , Mops niveiventer , Scotophilus dinganii , and Scotophilus leucogaster . The bats were identified by using morphometric measurements. An Anabat SD1 detector was later used to record echolocation calls of each individual bat in flight after it was hand-released. The sonogram of each individual bat was analyzed using Analook and categorized into two call types (frequency modulation and frequency modulation/quasi constant frequency) in order to develop a library of bat reference calls that could be used for a qualitative acoustic survey and species identification. Discriminant function analysis (DFA) was applied to search phase calls of the 65 individual bats in order to evaluate the potential for classifying calls into five species groups. Seven parameters calculated from each search phase call were used to classify calls. Results Bats where place into two groups according to the structure of calls: FM bats ( Mops condylurus , Chaerephon major , Mops niveiventer ) and FM/QCF bats ( Scotophilus dinganii and Scotophilus leucogaster ). The DFA resulted in a correct overall classification of 69.7%. Conclusion This preliminary study showed that DFA of call parameters is a feasible method that can be used to identify insectivorous bats in the region by their echolocation calls.

Background: Vitellaria paradoxa is a traditional medicinal plant of Cameroon. Several studies on this plant have focused on the cosmetic profile of its fruits. The present study focuses on the anti-inflammatory potency of stem barks extract of this plant. Objective: The objective was to evaluate the effect of methanolic extract of V. paradoxa (VPME) stem barks on inflammatory response in rats. Materials and Methods: Anti-inflammatory effects of VPME were evaluated in acute and chronic (28 days) inflammation induced in Wistar albino rats. The effects on hyperalgesia and locomotors activity were also quantified. The relative weight of lymphoid organs was obtained as well as some hematological parameters. Results: In the carrageenan-induced inflammation, VPME (75 mg/kg) exhibited a significant (66.67%) inhibition after 1 h. On the complete Freund′s adjuvant-induced rheumatoid arthritis, VPME showed a significant protective effect with 8.12% inflammation against 25.00% for the control group after 2 days of the treatment. The extract (75 and 150 mg/kg) significantly reduced the score of arthritis with a maximum obtained on day 19 th of the experimentation. There was a significant increase in the reaction time of rats on the hot plate as well as the exploratory activities of the animals in the open field. This extract significantly prevented weight, hemoglobin and red blood cells losses, and spleen hypertrophy. A protective action against skin destruction and cartilage erosion was evident. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of the extract revealed the presence of catechins. Conclusions: These findings suggested that V. paradoxa may contribute to the reduction of the inflammatory response.