Bats play a vital role in African ecosystems, from pollination and seed dispersal to pest control, significantly contributing to local ecology and livelihoods. The conventional thinking has been that protected areas offer a safe haven for many animal species, including bats. However, a recent study suggests that bats have been largely overlooked in monitoring and conservation programs conducted in protected areas and may be quietly declining as a result.
“Protected areas (PAs) are a critical conservation tool; however, their effectiveness in safeguarding many taxa, such as bats, remains unclear,” the authors wrote.
This study set out to assess how well protected areas actually protect bats and highlight the areas where conservation efforts need to be improved. So, researchers assessed the distribution of bats in protected areas across sub-Saharan Africa to identify areas where bats are underrepresented in monitoring efforts and where conservation and survey work is most needed.
“We used georeferenced occurrence records and species distribution models for 263 bat species in 7,875 terrestrial protected areas in sub-Saharan Africa,” Cecilia Montauban, a co-author of the article, told Mongabay via email. They found 89% of bat species were recorded in at least one protected area but 28 species, including five threatened and 15 data-deficient species, were absent from all the protected areas.
The analysis also revealed high species richness of bats in certain understudied areas in West Africa, Central Africa and the Albertine Rift.
Failing to understand the status of bat populations and the threats they face can lead to their silent decline, Alain Mukiranya, deputy chief of Maïko National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), not involved with the study, told Mongabay in a phone call. Such a decline in bats could trigger cascading effects on other species and disrupt the overall biodiversity of the park.
Therefore, appropriate monitoring is essential to better understand bat ecology, assess their conservation status and ensure the sustainability of the ecological services they provide, Montauban said. However, conservation is made more challenging by deep-rooted cultural beliefs.
“In our culture, bats are not just frightening; their repeated presence in the same place is often seen as very bad news. But once killed, bats are consumed as very delicious food and are sometimes used to treat a number of diseases,” Marie Bokele, an elder from the Batwa community living near Kahuzi-Biega National Park in the DRC, told Mongabay in a phone call.
Scientists warn that human exposure to bats can lead to zoonotic diseases, potentially including Ebola and coronavirus.
Banner image: A yellow-winged bat (Lavia frons) roosting in an Acacia tree in Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda. Its grey fur and yellow skin blend perfectly with the dry leaves and sunlight of the savanna, providing excellent camouflage. Image courtesy of Cecilia Montauban.
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