Aziz SA, Clements GR, McConkey KR, Sritongchuay T, Pathil S, Yazid MNHA, Campos-Arceiz A, Forget P-M, Bumrungsri, S. 2017.  Pollination by the locally endangered island flying fox (Pteropus hypomelanus) enhances fruit production of the economically important durian (Durio zibethinus). Ecol Evol. 2017;00:1–15. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.3213

From Tigga: You can read the press release from RIMBA (which has some great photos) here.

Personally, I’d rather not be bitten by Hipposideros diadema (photo Tigga Kingston)

This was the title Julie and I did not use in the outreach promoting her paper looking at bite force in 35 species of Malaysian bats (we talked about dogs instead). If you said Hipposideros diadema,  you really need to read the paper, and if you said the Kerivoula you probably intuitively got the main finding of the paper, that how hard a bat bites scales with size. However, the relationships between size and bite force differ across families and mechanical advantage plays a role independent of size. There is a very nice general public summary that Julie put together here (scroll down until you see Julie with a Cheiromeles :-))

For those interested in the use of collections for ecological research, the paper provides regression equations for the major families (Rhinolophidae, Hipposideridae, Vespertilionidae) that can be used to estimate bite force from skull parameters and even field measures (body mass and forearm length).

Juliana Senawi, Daniela Schmieder, Bjorn Siemers and Tigga Kingston (2015). Beyond size – morphological predictors of bite force in a diverse insectivorous bat assemblage from Malaysia. Functional Ecology doi: 10.1111/1365-2435.12447

You can email Julie or myself for a pdf.

The main objective of this programme was to increase awareness level regarding the importance of preserving and conserving the environment and to give exposure to the students about the threats facing the flora and fauna of Tasik Chini. This programme focused on the biology and the importance of bats in the ecosystem. The programme was attended by 131 primary school students from S.K. (FELDA) Chini 3 & 5, the S.K. (FELDA) Chini 2 and the S. K. Tasik Chini. Various activities were conducted in this programme which included workshops, quizzes, poster making contest and 3D model of bat’s habitat using recycled materials.

The participants were divided into eight groups and quizzes were conducted to determine the comprehension level of the participants towards information transferred. The participants really enjoyed the quizzes and they scored high marks. Drawing of posters and making 3D Model of bat’s habitat appealed to the participants’ creativity and the really enjoyed it. The presence of the bat mascot during these activities is among the highlights of the programme. The mascot’s role in a short sketch via a conversation on comparison of the bat’s anatomy and ecology with humans also enhanced the awareness level of the participants about bats. The students also had the opportunity to observe bats more closely in the exhibition hall and information displayed dispelled their negative perceptions of bats.

In addition a questionnaire was also distributed among the participants to determine their level of knowledge and awareness before and after attending the awareness programme. The programme was very successful in increasing participants’ understanding level of bats and the importance of bat conservation, particularly in Tasik Chini. At the end of the programme, prizes were awarded to each winner of the quizzes, poster drawing and making of 3D Model of the Bat’s Habitat.

MATERIALS DEVELOPED FOR THIS PROJECT CAN BE DOWNLOADED ON THE MALAYSIAN OUTREACH MATERIALS PAGE 

After the competition in 2011, this team was disbanded. Two years later, in 2013, they decided to show the video again as one of their activities in the Young Voices for Conservation competition organized by Treat Every Environment Special (TrEES) in partnership with AFFINBANK . Their team the Eco-Preneurs, Young Voices for Conservation, won a Special Merit Award in the competition for their work in bat conservation in their school.

At the same time Ching Ching and Shan Shan made another video about bats for the Green Film Competition 2013. They won the Grand Prize. Their video SOB (Save our Bats) can be watched at this link http://www.anugerahhijau.my/ or here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7ksc0ba28M.

Recently, the team was given a small grant to carry out an innovation related to the conservation of bats in their school. A newly formed team has set out to design a new bat house which simulates the attic. They have fixed a web cam to the bat house to monitor it for the duration of six months. So far no bats have yet to enter the house.

It is never an easy route for Madam Chan and the students of SMK King George V in making their school a bat and eco-friendly environment, as well as spreading the love of nature among the local society.  Their determination, passion, enthusiasm and creativity on this goal have turn the impossible to possible, and created a sustainable future for the local society. Their quest in the conservation of bats has become a passion and more students will join in the effort in the years to come.

It looks like I may need to add a new “antagonistic” stakeholder to the activity — I was dismayed to see this press article in the Star Online, reporting that a local tourist company had hired a pest control company to get rid of bats from some of the caves. More heartening however, was that the response from Friends of Batu Caves and it will be interesting to see how the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (PERHILITAN in the article) responds. If anyone picks up further news, please let me know so we can post updates.

Bat killing Batu Caves  (pdf of article)

According to principal investigators, Dr Matthew Struebig and Anthony Turner from the University of Kent’s Durrell Institute of Conservation Ecology (DICE), these findings challenge a long-held belief that there is limited, if any, value of heavily logged forests for conservation. The research, which monitored bats as an indicator for environmental change on Borneo, is the first of its kind to have surveyed wildlife in forests logged more than two times. The findings are particularly important because across the tropics forest that has been intensively harvested is frequently targeted for conversion to agriculture and is perceived to hold little value for timber, carbon or biodiversity. Dr Struebig, Lecturer in Biological Conservation from DICE, explains: ‘Recent studies have emphasised similar numbers of species living in unlogged and logged sites, but what surprised us was just how resilient some species were, even in sites almost unrecognisable as rainforest.’

Only by viewing forest sites along a gradient of logging disturbance, ranging from pristine to heavily degraded, were the team able to detect a gradual decline of some key bat species. The research confirmed the most vulnerable bats were those that tend to live in the cavities of old growth trees. By linking bat captures with vegetation measurements from nearby plots, the researchers were able to reveal how these animals declined as successive rounds of logging took their toll on forest structure, and crucially, the availability of tree cavities. Although logging damage was clearly detrimental to some of the species studied, the findings also offer some hope for forest restoration efforts.

‘Across the tropics there is increasing investment to restore the timber and wildlife in logged rainforests.’ says Dr Struebig. ‘For biodiversity, simple measures, such as setting artificial nest boxes for bats and birds may, if guided by research, help bring some species back to the numbers found in unlogged areas’, he said.

Struebig MJ, Turner A, Giles E, Lasmana F, Tollington S, Bernard H, Bell D (2013) The value of repeatedly logged rainforests for biodiversity: gradient and comparative approaches from Borneo. Advances in Ecological Research. 48: 183-224.

It is available as an e book if your institute has access to Springer ebooks, otherwise it is very expensive.

I have a chapter that gives my perspective on how our work in Malaysia relates to forest disturbance  (contact me at my ttu account for a copy) and Paul Racey gives a review of bat conservation in the final chapter.  and I’ve attached a copy of the table of contents so that you can chase down other authors.

Kingston, T. (2013). Response of bat diversity to forest disturbance in Southeast Asia – insights from long-term research in Malaysia. Pp 169-185. In: Bat Evolution, Ecology and Conservation (eds. RA Adams, SC Pedersen). Springer Science Press.

Racey, P. A. (2013). Bat Conservation: Past, Present and Future.  Pp 517 – 532

Bat Evol Ecol Cons Table of Contents

Kingston, T., Juliana, S., Nurul-Ain, E., Hashim, R. & Zubaid, A (2012). The Malaysian Bat Conservation Research Unit: From a national model to an international network. Malaysian Applied Biology, 41(2): 1–10.

Please contact me at tigga dot kingston at ttu dot edu for a pdf, or find the article on my Researchgate page.

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