Report from: Xavier Al-Mateen, Ain Alias, Neil Furey, Nina R. Ingle, Kendra Phelps, Jodi L. Sedlock, Dave Waldien
The 2nd International Southeast Asian Bat Conference held June 2011 in Bogor Indonesia presented the Southeast Asia Bat Conservation and Research Unit (SEABCRU) Cave Bat Priority group with a unique opportunity to collect and share information on the status of cave bats throughout Southeast Asia. At the Cave Bat Priority Session, we distributed a questionnaire to assess the overall level of threat to cave bats, as well as the respondent’s knowledge on cave bats within his or her country of expertise. The following report summarizes the results of the questionnaire, and represents our first step in a long-term effort to collate existing knowledge on Southeast Asian cave bats, identify gaps in our knowledge, and assess the status of cave bats in each of the Association of Southeast Asian (ASEAN) countries.
Read more: Conference Participants Weigh In on the Status of Cave Bats in Southeast Asia
The Emerging Wildlife Conservation Leaders (EWCL) Bat Team is excited to be working over the course of the next year and a half to facilitate the development of standards on bat guano harvesting in Southeast Asia that will help reduce the impact of harvesting on bat colonies in this part of the world. With the help of Bat Conservation International and an Advisory Committee, our aim is to set the stage for adoption of worldwide guano harvesting standards.
This two-part video "Into the caves: protecting the bats of the Philippines" details the threats facing the cave bats of the Philippines and illustrates how multiple institutions, both governmental and non-governmental, can work together to promote their conservation by documenting distributions and diversity, and reaching out to the public.
The videos were made by Tom Coben, an undergraduate at Lawrence University in Wisconsin, USA. He is an environmental studies major with a minor in film studies. Tom told me "I hope this short documentary will be able to shed some light on the issues surrounding cave bat conservation. I, with the help of my advisor Jodi Sedlock, have been preparing this video for over a year, shooting and editing many hours of footage. This was a collaboration with many people, so thank you to everyone involved".