Bat researchers recently declared a “major victory” in helping stop the online ornamental trade of bats, especially the painted woolly bat that’s sought as a décor or trinket for its brightly colored body and cute, furry face.
By August 2024, major e-commerce platforms eBay and Etsy had banned the sale of bat products on their sites. Conservation scientists from the IUCN Bat Specialist Group say this development follows their 2024 study that found more than 800 dead bats — a quarter of them painted woolly bats (Kerivoula picta) — taxidermied, framed and for sale on these platforms over a three-month period. The U.S., the world’s largest importer of wildlife, topped the list of destinations for online bat sales.
The findings prompted awareness campaigns, a petition currently under review by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services to add painted woolly bats to the Endangered Species Act, and overwhelming public support for a U.S. proposal to list the species on CITES, the global international trade agreement.
“It’s galvanizing,” Joanna Coleman, conservation biologist from the IUCN Bat Specialist Group, told Mongabay. “All of us in the bat trade working group are really quite thrilled with how quickly things have progressed with Kerivoula picta.”
Painted woolly bats are native to South and Southeast Asia. A 2015 study was the first to highlight ornamental trade in bats from Southeast Asia. A population assessment of the painted woolly bat in 2020 recorded a 25% decline in its numbers, largely attributed to this trade, prompting the uplisting of the species from least concern to near threatened on the IUCN Red List.
This worried Coleman and her colleagues, who then gathered data on the online trade of bats, leading to the 2024 study and its outcomes.
“This is truly a remarkable accomplishment and will have a huge impact on global trade in bats,” Dave Waldien, Red List authority coordinator for Old World bats at the IUCN, who wasn’t involved in the 2024 study and the recent announcement, told Mongabay by email. “I am especially impressed that the bat researchers involved chose to go beyond the research and a published paper to ensure their results were effectively used.”
The researchers say adding the species to the U.S. Endangered Species Act should increase scrutiny of its imports into the U.S. Coleman said getting painted woolly bats listed on CITES Appendix II, which allows international trade with permits, can help gather data to assess if their trade is sustainable.
“We want to see an end to all ornamental bat trade,” Coleman said. “It’s not a traditional livelihood anywhere to taxidermy a bat and put it in a frame.”
This win for painted woolly bats shows one can raise support to stop unsustainable trade in noncharismatic, misunderstood and maligned animals like bats, Coleman said. “You feel, in conservation, that you’re fighting a losing battle, but it’s not always a losing battle.”
Banner image of a painted woolly bat by Abu Hamas via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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