- Flying foxes play a vital role in maintaining forest health. As pollinators and seed dispersers they are also invaluable to the economic and social well-being of communities.
- In Indonesia’s Sulawesi, conservation groups are working to protect flying foxes, which face threats including hunting for food and habitat loss.
- Community-led approaches are showing success, but conservationists say greater protection and an expansion of projects is needed to protect more bat roosts.
After four years of conservation action, the number of flying foxes — large bat species — flocking to the Indonesian island of Mantawalu Daka has grown from around 8,000 to 40,000, according to PROGRES Sulawesi, an Indonesian NGO. Conservationists have worked with community members to change negative perceptions of bats and limit hunting on the island. Protecting bats can improve forest health, and since their return in greater numbers, local fishers report fish are easier to come by around the island.
“Our hypothesis is that the bat poop washes out to the outer area of the islands,” Sheherazade, co-executive director of PROGRES Sulawesi, told Mongabay. As it does so, it’s thought the bat guano spurs seagrass growth, which in turn provides habitat for fish. “Now, more and more fishermen report that it’s easier to catch fish closer to the island.”
Flying fox ecosystem services
The positive impact of nutrient-rich flying fox poop on seagrass and fish abundance needs further research, the conservationists say. Beyond that, there are several scientifically documented benefits of having these bats around. It’s known, for example, that they are key pollinators of durian, an economically valuable fruit across Southeast Asia. And they also pollinate a number of other tropical plants, directly influencing the health of forest ecosystems.
“Flying foxes play an important role in carbon sequestration by way of distributing seeds of carbon-storing trees over 80-100 kilometers [50-60 miles],” Mohd Tajuddin Abdullah, a zoologist at the University of Malaysia, Sarawak, and the University of Malaysia, Terengganu, told Mongabay.
In Indonesia and Malaysia, flying foxes are hunted for food or killed as many consider them as pests. This is one of a host of threats facing these species. A recent study outlined the scale of the challenge facing conservationists at the global level; scientists found that of 1,320 bat species around the world, 19% were at risk of hunting. “Large-bodied bats with narrow distributions” are at greater risk, the authors wrote.
Bats are widely hunted in large numbers across Sulawesi to feed markets in the north of the island, according to research. Three bat species flock to Mantawalu Daka island to roost: the gray flying fox (Pteropus griseus), considered vulnerable; Sulawesi flying fox (Acerodon celebensis), also vulnerable; and the black flying fox (Pteropus Alecto), listed as least concern.
Beyond Sulawesi and Indonesia, flying fox conservation is also sorely needed in Malaysia, Abdullah wrote. Malaysia’s large flying fox (Pteropus vampyrus) and the island flying fox (Pteropus hypomelanus) are both considered endangered.
For him, conservation efforts must come at the international, national and local levels as these species are so closely tied to tropical forest health. “Global conservation efforts of these bats is essential for their survival and also for the well-being of mankind in the world, plant and animal species that depend on them,” Abdullah wrote.
Protecting flying foxes
PROGRES’ work is centered around the village of Salu. Conservationists began by setting up flying fox population monitoring on Mantawalu Daka, training local youth to count bats. Community outreach soon followed — involving children and adults — to increase awareness of these species’ importance. Activities such as tree planting and beach cleaning got locals involved in caring for the bats’ habitat, Sheherazade explained.
Active participation and empowerment of local people is key to tackling threats such as hunting, she continued, as it can change perceptions and assign greater value to wildlife. Local fishers from Salu who used to ferry hunters to the island agreed to no longer do so.
“In the past, bats were actually perceived as pests in the area,” said Pikra, coordinator of PROGRES Sulawesi’s flying fox program, who is based in Luwuk, Sulawesi. “Over time, people started to have more positive attitudes and this change is reflected in the way people act against the threats, such as hunting.”
Another nearby project also claims success in creating a safe haven for bats on the island of Tangkuladi. There, long-term community-based initiatives were also key to halting hunting and instilling a “conservation ethic” among villagers from Taima, Marcy Summers, director of the Alliance for Tompotika Conservation, said in an interview. In 2013, a long-term conservation lease of the island was negotiated in collaboration with the community.
“Basically, the agreement was to end hunting on the island,” Summers said. “The local villagers who are landowners on Tangkuladi also have the job of patrolling to ensure that hunters don’t come to the island.”
Despite positive results, both organizations agreed that more was needed to create a larger network of safe roosts for flying foxes and other bat populations across Sulawesi. Though local fishers do not engage in hunting themselves and refuse to ferry hunters to Mantawalu Daka, access can still be found via other villages. Sheherazade said that was an ongoing challenge, and it continued to threaten the bats; for her, it underlined the need for conservation efforts to be expanded.
“We need lots of conservation efforts and we need lots of protected areas,” Summers agreed. “In the long run, what’s really needed is multiple safe places where [bats] can move around as they naturally do.”
Banner image: The Sulawesi flying fox is considered vulnerable to extinction by the IUCN. Community-based conservation on Sulawesi has shown success, but more is needed to protect these bats, say experts. Photo courtesy of Noval Suling.
Maleos bounce back in Sulawesi after villagers resolve to protect their eggs
Citations:
Sheherazade, Ober, H. K., & Tsang, S. M. (2019). Contributions of bats to the local economy through durian pollination in Sulawesi, Indonesia. Biotropica. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/btp.12712
Tanalgo, K. C., Sritongchuay, T., Agduma, A. R., Dela Cruz, K. C., & Hughes, A. C. (2023). Are we hunting bats to extinction? Worldwide patterns of hunting risk in bats are driven by species ecology and regional economics. Biological Conservation. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320723000447?dgcid=rss_sd_all
Sheherazade, & Tsang, S. M. (2015). Quantifying the bat bushmeat trade in North Sulawesi, Indonesia, with suggestions for conservation action. Global Ecology and Conservation. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989415000049
Pei, H. P., Hock, L. K., Ling, C. Y., Osman, N., Majid, N., Ean, T. P., … Liat, L. B. (2021). The collections of the two native, near threatened pteropid species in Peninsular Malaysia by the Institute for Medical Research, Malaysia: the large flying fox (Pteropus vampyrus) and island flying fox (Pteropus hypomelanus). Journal of Wildlife and Parks. Retrieved from https://jwp.wildlife.gov.my/index.php/jwp/article/view/62
Summers, M., Bunsung, R., & Manasai, W. (2021). “Someday we will all learn anew through hands that love us”: Protecting a key insular population of the Sulawesi Fruit Bat Acerodon celebensis. Conservation Science and Practice. Retrieved from https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/csp2.559