This is the first compilation of Batu Cave`s faunal species in detail, complete with comments and references for further reading. Besides that, the article includes a brief history of cave surveys (since late 19th century as well as the morphology of the cave. Anthropogenic disturbance of Batu Caves is also reported.
Moseley M., Lim T. W., and Lim, T. T. (2012). "Fauna reported from Batu Caves, Selangor, Malaysia: annotated checklist and bibliography." Cave and Karst Science. 39(2): 77-92.
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/max_moseley/3
Anthony Mould, of the Philippine Spotted Deer Conservation Foundation, recently made an important contribution to our understanding of cave bat populations in the Philippines by publishing data on bat populations recorded from 21 caves on Panay Island in the central Philippines. In addition to documenting 12 bat species occupying these caves, Mould and his colleagues identified and suggested that special conservation attention be given to a large maternity colony of Rousettus amplexicaudatus. This fruit bat, while not formally listed as threatened, may be declining rapidly across the archipelago due to hunting. Mould’s paper not only provides detailed written observations, it also includes sketches of each cave surveyed indicating the location of roosting bats. This paper provides a good model (and inspiration) for all of us sitting on cave bat survey data.
Mould, A. 2012. Cave bats of the central west coast and southern section of the Northwest Panay Peninsula, Panay Island, the Philippines. Journal of Threatened Taxa 4(11): 2993-3028. http://www.threatenedtaxa.org/ZooPrintJournal/2012/September/antony.htm
This is a fascinating paper in which the presence of bones of forest-interior bat species (mainly small Hipposideros species) in the archaeological record of the Great Cave of Niah, Sarawak, is used to provide evidence for late Pleistocene closed-canopy forest cover in NW Borneo. Overall, bat bones from 7 families and 9 genera were recovered from 22 dated assemblages that formed a time series of 14 chronological intervals 48-0.35 ky BP.
Stimpson, C. M. (2012). Local scale, proxy evidence for the presence of closed canopy forest in North-western Borneo in the late Pleistocene: Bones of Strategy I bats from the archaeological record of the Great Cave of Niah, Sarawak. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 331–332 (2012) 136–149
The abstract is here but you will need to contact the author for a pdf This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
A recently published article in Science Reports entitled "Counting in the dark: Non-intrusive laser scanning for population counting and indentifying roosting bats" demonstrates a method for using innovative and less intrusive technology to survey bat populations in caves. This study uses a terrestrial Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) laser scanner to remotely identify and determine the exact population of roosting bats in a cave (Gua Kelawar) in peninsular Malaysia. LIDAR was used to capture a 3D image of the spatial layout of the cave but also of the roosting bats accurate enough to differentiate Hipposideros larvatus and their roosting pattern in minimal light amongst the cave features.
Azmy, S.N., Mohd Sah, S. A., Shafie, N. J., Arifin, A., Majid, Z., Ismail, M. N. A. and Shamsir, M. S. 2012. Counting in the dark: Non-intrusive laser scanning for population counting and identifying roosting bats. Scientific Report. 2, 524 – 527.
 Azmy et al 2012_ Counting in the dark_ Non-intrusive laser.pdf | [ ] | 1049 Kb |
A recent paper on diets of cave-dwelling insectivorous bats of Indonesia was published by Fahama et al. in Journal of Tropical Biology and Conservation. The researchers identified the use of insects by 11 bat species from 12 Karst caves in south Gomong area of Central Java. The results suggest that the cave assemblages can be subdivided into three different foraging ensembles based upon differences in their use of prey size and prey hardness. Competition of food resources was assumed to be weak among species due to the low overlapping of their diets.
Source: Wijayanti, Fahama, Dedy Duryadi Solihin, Hadi Sukadi Alikodra,and Ibnu Maryanto. 2012. The diet of insectivorous cave-dewelling bats from Gombong Karst Area, Central Java, Indonesia. Journal of Tropical Biology and Conservation, Vol. 9 (1): 49-18.
| IBNU_Maryanto_JTBC.pdf | [ ] | 663 Kb |