SEABCRU » Cambodia

Bat guano enhances plant growth

Angela Como — Thu, 22 Jan 2015 18:51:49 +0000

Bat guano has long been used as a natural fertilizer for crops in certain areas of Cambodia and Vietnam. As its efficacy as a fertilizer is unknown, Sothearen, Furey and Jurgens conducted the first formal testing of bat guano as an agent of enhanced crop growth. Guano was found to increase growth rates in every tested species as compared to untreated plants, and even yielded higher growth rates in several cases than the chemical fertilizer treatments. Given that macro-nutrient content of the guano was significantly less than that of the chemical fertilizer and that the plant species in this experiment are all economically valuable crops, these findings may very well be instrumental to economic and food security in Southeast Asia.

Sothearen, T., N. M. Furey and J. A. Jurgens. 2014. Effect of bat guano on the growth of five economically important plant species. Journal of Tropical Agriculture 52 (2): 169-173.

Author for correspondence: sothearenthi at yahoo dot com

The full article is available at: http://www.jtropag.in/index.php/ojs/issue/view/28

Flying fox colonies in Cambodia – hunting pressure a major cause for concern

Tigga Kingston — Tue, 02 Sep 2014 12:24:45 +0000

Flying fox on Koh Trong Island on the Mekong River (copyright Gordon Congdon)

Flying fox conservation is one of the four SEABCRU priorities, and our first global action is to collate information on the current populations and distributions of flying fox species. Researchers from Cambodia from the Institut Pastuer du Cambodge and Fauna and Flora International – Cambodia Programme (including SEABCRU steering committee member Neil Furey) recently completed a rapid assessment of flying fox colonies in the country (Pteropus vampyrus, P. lylei, P. hypomelanus), making an invaluable contribution to this global action. 12 colonies were reported, with colony size ranging from 200 individuals to c. 6000. Bats had been extirpated from one of the 12 sites, and worryingly, hunting of bats for bushmeat, trade and/or medicinal use was reported or observed at at six sites. The authors conclude that Cambodian flying foxes are heavily threatened and numbers are likely declining, and of course this has serious implications for the ecosystem services they provide. The project put together a great facebook page to facilitate information gathering and outreach https://www.facebook.com/CFFCPH/timeline.

It would be great to see reports like this summarizing the distribution of flying fox colonies from other countries.

Ravon, S., Furey, N.M., Vibol, H. & Cappelle, J. 2014. A rapid assessment of flying fox (Pteropus spp.) colonies in Cambodia. Cambodian Journal of Natural History, 2014, 14-18.

For Download: Ravon et al. 2014. Cambodian Pteropus

New bats for Cambodia

Juliana Senawi — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 14:51:02 +0000

Rhinolophus pearsonii (copyright Juliana Senawi)

Cambodia has been described as one of the least explored countries in term of it bat fauna in the Southeast Asia region. However, extensive field expeditions in recent years have revealed a total of 66 species of bats occurred in Cambodia (more than double in terms of the number of species reported before). In addition, recent surveys by Chheang et al. 2013 added four new records to the country, thus increasing the species checklist to 70 species. Species recently collected were Cynopterus horsfieldii, Coelops frithii, Rhinolophus pearsonii and Falsistrellus affinis. C. horsfieldii and C. frithii were predicted to occur in Cambodia, however, this is the first physical evidence of the species recorded. Although none of the newly-recorded species are in of global conservation concern, F. affinis is evidently very rare and in this country this species only known from a single cave. Therefore, information about species and their distribution pattern are very important for local conservation action.

Cynopterus horsefieldii (copyright Juliana Senawi)

Original citation: Chheang, S., J.J.P. Bates, K. Boughey, G. Csorba, B. Hayes, S. Ith, A. Mould, S. Phauk and M. Furey. 2013. Further new country records of for bat species (Chiroptera) from Cambodia and a call for information. Cambodian Journal of Natural History, 2: 73-82.

Chheang et al. 2013. Four new bats for Cambodia

Fun and Flying Foxes in Cambodia — SEABCRU FF Workshop 2013

Tigga Kingston — Wed, 23 Oct 2013 18:38:32 +0000

The SEABCRU Flying Fox Workshop in Phnom Penh last week (October 17th-19th) was a great success, with 24 participants drawn from NGOs, universities, ministries and research institutes from Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. We had an intense three days with activities intended to insure that by the end of the workshop participants could:

assess the size of flying fox colonies
initiate dietary studies and ecosystems service evaluations
be aware of disease ecology research opportunities and be able to conduct bat research safely
work with different stakeholders in fruit bat-farmer conflict management
use Darwin Core Format for data and be able to contribute to the SEABCRU database.

The workshop made the front cover of the Cambodian Daily (attached below), and was featured in the Phnom Penh Post — the two main English language newspapers in Cambodia, greatly promoting both bat conservation and the SEABCRU.

Taking count of cambodias Flying fox bats (Cambodia Daily coverage)

I am still pulling together the workshop report, but in the mean time here are some photos of events

SEABCRU Flying Fox Workshop 2013

Tigga Kingston — Thu, 10 Oct 2013 16:39:18 +0000

This month brings the SEABCRU Flying Fox Workshop 2013 to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This follows on from last year’s SEABCRU Flying Fox Workshop in Hat Yai, Thailand, which brought experts and practitioners from across Southeast Asia together to work on protocols and methods for monitoring and surveying populations. The objectives for all the priority workshops in 2013-2014 are a little different, namely that they stimulate research in areas that currently lack expertise or initiatives. The Flying Fox Team identified Cambodia as just such a “network gap”, so the majority of participants have been drawn from Cambodia, and surrounding countries (southern Vietnam, Thailand), and are a mix of students and NGO representatives just starting to get into Flying Fox Conservation. We will be reviewing methods for assessing population size, identifying species, and the study of diet and disease of flying foxes as well as practicing these methods in the field.

This training workshop will be conducted in an interactive manner promoting the broader conservation goals of the SEABCRU network, which are to:

• Share experiences among participants and countries in addressing the different priorities

• Refine research and training protocols that can provide for better integration and synthesis of research across the region.

• Link research processes and outputs with conservation efforts in and among SE Asian countries

• Work to collate current data on distribution and abundance of SE Asian bats; inform database development and parameterization

• Identify future directions for research within and across priorities

• Network expertise across countries

The workshop is hosted by the Centre for Biodiversity Conservation of the Royal University of Phnom Penh, and is conducted in collaboration with FFI-Cambodia Program. The SEABCRU FF team leaders will all be there (Sara Bumrungsri, Tammy Mildenstein, Paul Racey, Kevin Olival), supported by Sheema Abdul Aziz and CE Neuvo. Neil Furey, of the SEABCRU Cave Team heads up the local host team, along with SEABCRU members Phauk Sophany and Chheang Sarak. Danny Squire, the SEABCRU IT Program Manager, will be introducing and familiarizing participants with the SEABCRU database which we are rolling out in full in the New Year. The workshop runs 17^th-19^th and I’ll be posting photos and updates as we go along.

Colombus Zoo Award for Cambodian Cave Bat Conservation

Dave Waldien — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 02:05:41 +0000

The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium Conservation Fund has awarded Bat Conservation International $8,000 in support of Saving Cave Bats in Cambodia, Laos, & Vietnam: Investing in the Bat Champions of Tomorrow.

This collaborative project will be led by SEABCRU’s Dr. Neil Furey, Fauna & Flora International (Cambodia) and Cambodian colleagues, and in collaboration with Dr. Tigga Kingston, Chair of Southeast Asian Bat Conservation & Research Unit (SEABCRU), Texas Tech University.

Our goals include:

1. Launching a status assessment of 33 caves for cave bats in southern Cambodia

2. Engaging local communities and authorities living near cave roosts in Cambodia through educational and capacity-building activities

3. Establishing national cave bat database in Cambodia

4. Expanding region-wide research and conservation capacity beyond Cambodia (primarily in Laos and Vietnam)

Project Background and Details: The significance of SE Asian caves for sustaining bat diversity and the multitude of threats they face are widely recognized. Threats range from total destruction of roost sites due to quarrying activities, disturbance from show cave development and guano harvesting, through to direct hunting of colonial species such as wrinkle-lipped bats. These threats pose a major conservation concern in Cambodia, where karst areas are experiencing increasing forest degradation, tourism development, and limestone quarrying.

Though the extent of Cambodian karst is not accurately known, the largest outcrops occur in the western Battambang and southern Kampot and Kep provinces. Over 100 caves are registered from these areas, yet very few have been surveyed for bats to date and most of these assessments took place more than 10 years ago. While the limited data available indicates that karst areas in the Kampot and Kep provinces support major colonies of wrinkle-lipped bats, their current status is unknown. As hunting of bats for food is common in Cambodia and few if any caves are protected for biodiversity, the need for assessments to determine the status and management imperatives of key sites for cave-dwelling bats is crucial.

Key sites for cave bat conservation will be identified on the basis of species richness, population size, presence of IUCN red-listed and/or rarely-recorded species, levels of disturbance and actual and potential conservation threats. Special note will be taken of any new or innovative sustainable cave management and guano harvesting approaches encountered, and the fieldwork will facilitate the development of protocols for surveying cave bat diversity in Cambodia. Site management authorities will be trained in bat conservation and monitoring techniques through their involvement in the field research. To raise local awareness, cave profiles (including management recommendations) will be translated into the Khmer language and provided to local authorities and residents alongside introductory information on the biological, ecological, and economic importance of bats.

Data from the field research will be collated in the form of a national cave database at the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) plus a synthesis report on the status of cave bats in southern Cambodia (including site-specific recommendations for conservation and management).

Echolocation in Cambodian Bats – building up regional knowledge

Tigga Kingston — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 02:46:22 +0000

One of the directions for future research that I highlighted in my recent chapter on bat research in SE Asia was understanding how the edge/gap and open space insectivorous bats respond to habitat loss and land-use change. Because bats in these ensembles can be hard to catch but emit relatively high-intensity echolocation calls, acoustic surveys and monitoring will underpin this research. As full-spectrum bat detectors with on-board processing and recording capabilities drop in price, this becomes ever more feasible. However, the limiting factor remains the availability of reference calls against which to compare field recordings. Meanwhile, recording the resting frequency of members of the Hipposideridae and Rhinolophidae adds to our knowledge of species distributions, species boundaries and the role of echolocation in speciation. Sophany, Sarith and Neil are to be congratulated on on their recent publication describing echolocation calls of 17 bats species in Cambodia and assessing the potential to discriminate among species based on the call parameters. Don’t let calls sit storage — describe, publish and share!

Phauk, S., Phen, S., Furey, N. M (2013). Cambodian bat echolocation: a first description of assemblage call parameters and assessment of utility for species identification. Cambodian Journal of Natural History 2013 (1) 16-26.

Attached -Phauk_et_ al_ (2013)

Cambodian bat list grows

Tigga Kingston — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:14:04 +0000

The species list for Cambodia continues to climb! Recent surveys and morphological reviews of collections have added five new records, bringing the current count to 66 species. The new records are of Macroglossus minimus, Pipistrellus paterculus, P. javanicus, Hypsugo cadornae and Miniopterus pusillus.

Neil M Furey, Phauk Sophany, Phen Sarith, Chheang Sarak, Ith Saveng, Paul JJ Bates and Gabor Csorba (2012). New country records for five bat species (Chiroptera) from Cambodia. Cambodian Journal of Natural History 2: 141-149.

There is also a nice article from FFI on Neil’s work in Cambodia working with FFI and Royal University of Phnom Phen on the Biodiversity Conservation Masters.

Seven species added to Cambodia’s country list

Tigga Kingston — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:23:38 +0000

The Cambodian bat fauna is one of the least well-known in the region, as is evidenced by the addition of seven new species to the country’s list in a recent publication from Ith Saveng and colleagues. The authors reviewed specimens collected from around the country over the last 11 years and confirmed the presence of Rhinolophus yunanensis, Hipposideros diadema, Saccolaimus saccolaimus, Myotis ater, M. horsfieldii, Murina cyclotis and Kerivoula picta, bringing the country’s total to 60 species. There remains much to do however, and the authors anticipate addition discoveries as survey effort expands and intensifies.

Ith Saveng, Gabor Csorba, Paul J J Bates & Neil M Furey (2011). Confirmation of seven bat species for Cambodia. Cambodian Journal of Natural History 2: 93-103.

Ith et al. 2011. Seven new bats for Cambodia

Three New Species of Murina from Vietnam

Tigga Kingston — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 22:02:00 +0000

The ranks of Murina are swelling! Since Nancy Simmon’s review of 2005, 8 additional Southeast Asian species have been described, and now another three species join the ranks. Gabor Csorba, Nguyen Truong Son, Ith Saveng and Neil Furey examined specimens from Cambodia and Vietnam, and began with a timely redescription of Murina tubinaris before describing M. cineracea, M. beelzebub and M. walstoni. As the name suggests, M. cineracea is any ashy-grey colour, and was formerly included in M. tubinaris. The type specimen comes from Cambodia but it is known from scattered localities throughout continental Southeast Asia and into the Indian Subcontinent. M. beelzebub is a dark and feisty species collected in predominantly forested reserves in Vietnam, and M. walstoni a small bat with brown dorsal fur and a pure white ventral surface from Cambodia and Vietnam.

Gabor Csorba, Ngyuen Truong Son, Ith Saveng, and Neil M. Furey. 2011. Revealing cryptic bat diversity: three new Murina and redescription of M. tubinaris from Southeast Asia. Journal of Mammalogy, 92: 891-904.

For a copy of the article, please contact the corresponding author Gabor Csorba csorba(at)nhmus.hu