Earlier this month saw the joint 16th IBRC and 43rd NASBR meeting in Costa Rica. This was the largest IBRC yet with over 650 people, and four concurrent sessions. It was an excellent meeting, though obviously a little far for most people based in Southeast Asia. Nonetheless, there were several SEABCRU presenters and talks from others on bats that extend to SE Asia, that I’ve listed below. In particular, Tammy Mildenstein talked about the SEABCRU in a symposium convened by Dave Waldien on Global Networks of bat organizations, which was very well received. And a special shout out to Joe Chun-Chia Huang who won the Avinet Award for his talk on bat coffee in Sumatra. The next IBRC will be in 2016 in Durban, South Africa — a little nearer. It would be awesome if an institute or group of institutes wanted to bring the 2019 conference to SE Asia – it was last here when Dr Zubaid Akbar and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia hosted it in Malaysia in 2001.
Meanwhile, the book of abstracts is below, and provides an excellent opportunity to see what is going on globally in bat research. I’ve highlighted the talks by SEABCRU members and others working on SE Asian bats and list them below.
Nurul Ain Elias, Tigga Kingston – The interplay between weather and reproduction in three cave-dwelling insectivorous bats in a Malaysian Tropical Rainforest.
Kyle Armstrong – The Australasian Bat Society: our current challenges and future vision.
Arjan Boonman, Yossi Yovel, Sara Bumrungsri — Echolocation in non-echolocating bats
Alan Hitch, Sigit Wiantoro, Andy Engilis Jr. – Estimating bat species richness and their community habitat relationships using hierarchical models with presence absence data in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia
Joe Chun-Chia Huang, Elly Jazdyzyk, Meyner Nusalawo, Tigga Kingston — Is bat coffee a potential “wing-wing” tool for biodiversity conservation in Southwestern Sumatra? AVINET AWARD
Tigga Kingston, *Tammy Mildenstein — The Southeast Asian Bat Conservation Research Unit: regional bat conservation exceeding the sum of its parts.
Tigga Kingston, Maria Sagot, Juliana Senawi, Rosli Hashim & Zubaid Akbar – Spatial analysis of species interactions in diverse assemblages.
Hongjun Lin, Ying Liu, Jiang Feng — Vocal communication in adult greater tube-nosed bats (Murina leucogaster)
Bo Luo et al. — Percieved predation risk triggers cooperation and selfishness in Rhinolophus pusillus.
Nor Zalipah Mohamed, Shahrul Anuar Mod Sah, Gareth Jones — Free nature sercies: flower-visiting bats as pollinating agents for mangrove (Sonneratia) trees in Malaysia.
Kevin Olival et al. — The ecology and field surveillance of bat viruses
Lorelei Patrick, Eve McCulloch, *Luis Ruedas — Molecular and morphological approaches reveal previously obscured species diversity in Southeast Asian Archipelagic Horseshoe Bats, Rhinolophus Gray, 1825
Kendra Phelps, Tigga Kingston — Conserving bats in the Philippines: assessming the impact of cave distrubance on bat assemblages.
Caroline Schoener, Michael Schoener, Gerald Kerth, Ulmar Grafe — Supply determines demand: influence of partner quality and quantity on the interactions between bats and pitcher plants.
Michael Schoener, Caroline Schoener, Ralph Simon, Ulmar Grafe, Gerald Kerth — Echo-acoustic adaptation in bat-pitcher plant mutualism.
Jodi Sedlock, Elizabeth Clare — Island Bat Diets: does it matter more who you are or where you live?
Juliana Senawi, Tigga Kingston — Beyond Size: morphological predictors of bite force in a diverse insecivorous bat assemblage from Malaysia.
Susan Tsang and Sheherazade — Integration of local culture in flying fox conservation startegies in North Sulawesi, Indonesia: A preliminary Framework.
Megan Vodzak, DeeAnn Reeder — Characterization of season and stress-related immunity in pteropodid bats.
