Eco Hvar

SOS: Bats Gone Missing!

Eco Hvar is not alone in being worried that bats are increasingly rare on Hvar Island.

Pipistrellus nathusii Pipistrellus nathusii Croatian Natural History Museum / Hrvatski prirodoslovni muzej

Once, not so long ago, they were plentiful. During the balmy summer evenings they would stream around any source of light, big or small, in the hunt for insects to feed on. I remember them milling purposefully around from my earliest days in Pitve over 25 years ago. In September 1993 there was one sleeping peacefully hanging from a beam in the wine-cellar. A friend remarked that having a bat on one's premises brought good luck to the house. This optimistic belief is not unique to Dalmatia. In traditional Chinese culture bats represent good fortune and blessings.

Colony, pipistrelli kuhlii. Photo courtesy of the Croatian Natural History Museum

In the last few years, bats have been less and less visible. In Pitve in 2016 I saw no more than a handful, and people in other places around the island have also reported seeing very few, if any bats, where once they were numerous.

Bats belong to the order Chiroptera, and are the only mammals capable of flying. There are over 1100 different types of bat in the world, making them the second largest group of mammals, after rodents. In Croatia there are 35 types, belonging to eleven families. Most of them feed on insects, while one, the rare giant noctule bat (Nyctalus lasiopterus) sometimes also catches smaller birds, while the long-fingered bat (Myotis capaccinii) can catch small fish.

Nyctalus noctula. Photo courtesy of the Croatian Natural History Museum

In Croatia Dr. Igor Pavlinić, Custodian of the Croatian Natural History Museum in Zagreb, has been involved in the study and protection of bats for many years. He is conducting a long-term project monitoring a colony of bats at Šćuza, including proposals for their protection. He has demonstrated how bats not only make their homes in woodlands, but also in the most diverse of places, from caverns, caves, abandoned mines and gaps in stones (mostly for winter hibernation), to loft spaces in houses and churches, chimneys, as well as spaces in the walls of bridges. Several colonies on Hvar bore this out. For example, over many years European free-tailed bats (Tadarida teniotis) nested in the belfry of the Church of Our Lady of Health above Jelsa. Sadly, following lengthy renovation works in the past few years, the bats disappeared and never returned.

Our Lady of Health, Jelsa, once a haven for bats. Photo Mirko Crnčević

Bats are said to be an 'index of health' in any given place. They do a good job, actually an essential service for human comfort. One bat can devour between 500 and 1,000 mosquitoes per hour; in the course if a night, it can consume prey equalling about one third of its body mass. Is it a coincidence that as bat numbers have fallen over the last few years, mosquitoes have become more and more of a problem, despite ever-fiercer desperate attempts to eradicate them with chemical poison sprays?

Bats are among the oldest surviving mammals, whose development probably began at the time when dinosaurs dominated the world. The evolution of bats gives rise to some of the most intriguing questions within the history of the evolution of today's mammals. The only thing the majority of scientists agree on is that the bat's early ancestor was a type of nocturnal insect-eating mammal which lived in trees. The latest molecular research has shown that the ape (homininoidea) arose in a later development from a common ancestor, providing a link to humans.

Eptesicus serotinus. Photo courtesy of the Croatian Natural History Museum

Eptesicus serotinus. Photo courtesy of the Croatian Natural History Museum

The decline of bats on Hvar is, sadly, not unique. Bats are under threat around the globe, some types are close to extinction. The Croatian State Institute for Nature Protection identifies several factors as potential causes of bat decline (brochure in Croatian):

1. LOSS OF HABITAT, including excessive felling of old established trees; adapting caves as tourist attractions; flooding of caves; renovation of old buildings without due care for bats' needs

2. LOSS OF NATURAL HUNTING GROUNDS

3. POISONOUS CHEMICAL TREATMENTS OF WOODEN RAFTERS

4. PESTICIDE USE

5. REDUCTION OF INSECTS (often through use of insecticides, and industrial-scale agriculture)

6. TOURISM IN CAVES

7. DISRUPTION TO NESTS AND WINTER COLONIES

8. WINDFARMS

9. DRYING UP OF SURFACE WATERS

10. POLLUTION OF WATER SOURCES

A monograph by I. Pavlinić published by the Natural History-Mathematics Faculty at the University of Zagreb places the blame for the bat decline squarely on inappropriate, careless human activity (article in Croatian).

'Man's activites to blame for bat decline'

Bats are strictly protected in Croatia, as in other European countries. According to the Law on the Protection of Nature (Zakon o zaštiti prirode - in Croatian), there are fines up to 200,000 kunas for disturbing, capturing, wounding or killing bats, and for damaging or destroying their habitats. There is also a separate fine of 1,000 to 4,000 kunas for each killed bat. Apart from the national law, since 2000 Croatia has also been party to the international agreement for the protection and conservation of European bats, entitled UNEP / EUROBATS. In the Sixth National Report on ther Implementation of the Agreement covering 2010 to 2014, the measures being undertaken in Croatia to monitor and protect bats were described. Most of the activity is on the mainland. Toxic timber treatments were given as a subject of special concern, but it seems there has been little specific study on the effects of pesticide use.

A single pipistrellus kuhlii. Photo courtesy of the Croatian Natural History Museum

The law takes into account deliberate and wilful damage caused to bats, but there is little in the way of an adequate system of control to prevent the harm done through pesticide use, building works and renovations, tourist developments and tree-felling. Bats can live for over 30 years, but they reproduce slowly, so any deaths of young bats in a colony causes a rapid decline in numbers. Protection measures are urgently needed. Every local council should initiate projects to provide adequate habitats for bats. Youngsters should be encouraged to observe bats and record their numbers, to raise awareness at local level.

We need these important and fascinating creatures. Their insect-eating capacities are an invaluable service to human health. With due effort and care, we can re-create the conditions which allow bats to thrive. They will repay the favour with infinite interest.

© Mirko Crnčević and Vivian Grisogono 2017

A Croatian version of this article by Mirko Crnčević was published in the magazine 'Dobra Kob', issue 184, January 2017, pp 52-55

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    © Will McCarry

    Elijah Toirai explains current conservancy boundaries and potential areas for expansion.

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    © Will Turner

    A black-backed jackal hunts for prey.

    “But then the nature finance team at Conservation International — these crazy guys — came up with a wild idea,” Alie said. “In just six months they put this entirely new funding model together: loaning money at an affordable rate to the conservancies so that they can continue to pay staff and wildlife rangers.”

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    Born out of this emergency, we discovered a new way to do conservation.

    Elijah Toirai

    “The catastrophe of COVID-19 was total for us,” said Benard Leperes, a landowner with Mara North Conservancy and a conservation expert at Maasai Mara Wildlife Conservancies Association. “Without Conservation International and the fund, this landscape would have not been secured; the conservancies would have disintegrated as people were forced to sell their land to convert it to agriculture.”

    But it was communities themselves that proved the model might be replicable after the pandemic ended.

    “The conservancies had until 2023 before the first payment was due,” Toirai said. “But as soon as tourism resumed in mid-2021, the communities started paying back the loans. Today, the loans are being repaid way ahead of schedule.”

    “Born out of this emergency, we discovered a new way to do conservation.”

    A new era for conservation

    The high plateaus overlooking the Maasai Mara are home to the very last giant pangolins in Kenya.

    These mammals, armored with distinctive interlocking scales, are highly endangered because of illegal wildlife trade. In Kenya, threats from poaching, deforestation and electric fences meant to deter elephants from crops have caused the species to nearly disappear. Today, scientists believe there could be as few as 30 giant pangolins left in Kenya.

    Conservancies could be crucial to bringing them back. Conservation International has identified opportunities to provide transformative funding for conservancies in this area — a sprawling grassland northwest of Maasai Mara that is the very last pangolin stronghold in the country. The fund will help communities better protect an existing 10,000-hectare (25,000-acre) conservancy and bring an additional 5,000 hectares under protection. It provides a safety net, ensuring a steady income for the communities as the work of expanding the conservancy begins. With a stable income, communities can start work to restore the savanna and remove electric fences that have killed pangolins. And as wildlife move back into the ecosystem, the grasslands will begin to recover.

    In addition to expanding conservancies around Maasai Mara, Conservation International has identified other critical ecosystems where community conservancies can help lift people out poverty, while providing new habitats for wildlife. Conservation International has ambitious plans to restore a critical and highly degraded savanna between Amboseli and Tsavo National Parks in southern Kenya, as well as a swath of savanna outside Kruger National Park in South Africa.

    © Emily Nyrop

    A lone acacia tree in a sea of grass.

    Elephants, fire, Maasai and cattle

    Many of the new and emerging community conservancies have been carefully chosen as key wildlife corridors that would be threatened by overgrazing livestock.

    When the first Maasai Mara conservancies were established in 2009, cattle grazing was prohibited within their boundaries. When poorly managed, cattle can wear grasses down to their roots, triggering topsoil erosion and the loss of nutrients, microbes and biodiversity vital for soil health. It was also believed that tourists would be put off by the sight of livestock mingling with wildlife.

    © Emily Nyrop

    Cattle are closely monitored in the Maasai Mara to prevent overgrazing.

    However, over the years, landowners objected, lamenting the loss of cultural ties to cattle and herding. “That was when we changed tactics,” said Raphael Kereto, the grazing manager for Mara North Conservancy.

    Beginning in 2018, Mara North and other conservancies in the region started adopting livestock grazing practices to restore the savanna. Landowners agreed to periodically move livestock between different pastures, allowing grazed lands to recover and regrow,  mimicking the traditional methods pastoralists have used on these lands for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

    “Initially, there was a worry that maybe herbivores and other wildlife will run away from cattle,” said Kereto. “But we have seen the exact opposite — the wildlife all follow where cattle are grazing. This is because we have a lot of grass, and all the animals follow where there is a lot of grass. We even saw a cheetah with a cub that spent all her time rotating with wildlife.”

    “It's amazing — when we move cattle, the cheetah comes with it.”

    The loans issued by the fund — now called the African Conservancies Facility — will enhance rotational grazing systems, which are practiced differently in each conservancy, by incorporating best practices and lessons from the organization’s Herding for Health program in southern Africa.

    © Will Turner

    An elephant herd stares down a pack of hyenas.

    For landowners like Dickson Kaelo, who was among the pioneers to propose the conservancy model in Kenya, the return of cattle to the ecosystem has restored a natural order.

    “I always wanted to understand how it was that there was so much more wildlife in the conservancies than in Maasai Mara National Reserve,” said Kaelo, who heads the Kenya Wildlife Conservancy Association, based in Nairobi.

    “I went to the communities and asked them this question. They told me savannas were created by elephants, fire and Maasai and cattle, and excluding any one of those is not good for the health of the system. So, I believe in the conservancies — I know that every single month, people go to the bank and they have some money, they haven't lost their culture because they still are cattle keepers, and the land is much healthier, with more grass, more wildlife, and the trees have not been cut.

    “For me, it’s something really beautiful.”

    Further reading:

    Will McCarry is the content director at Conservation International. Want to read more stories like this? Sign up for email updates. Also, please consider supporting our critical work.

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