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Today is International Bat Night, a global event dedicated to celebrating and raising awareness about bats and their vital role in ecosystems. Held annually, this event aims at educating the public about the importance of bats, dispel myths and misconceptions, and promote conservation efforts. A series of events is organized worldwide to highlight the ecological significance of bats. It often takes place on the last weekend of August, although specific dates can vary by country or region. The event includes a variety of activities designed to engage and inform the public about these fascinating creatures.
To mark this day, the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation (MWF) in collaboration with La Vallée de Ferney Conservation Trust, has organised a bat counting activity for the Mauritius Fruit Bat (Pteropus niger) on Friday 23 August 2024. 17 participants were present for the activity, including seven Friends of Mauritian Wildlife members, five MWF representatives and five Ferney Valley staff.
The meeting point was the La Vallée de Ferney’s ‘Colonial House’, where participants were exposed to the bats and the bat counting activity by Ashmi Bunsy, MWF Project Coordinator (Flora and Bats) and Vikash Tatayah (MWF Conservation Director). Ashmi delivered an interesting presentation about bat biology and ecology, and was followed by Vikash who explained the different counting methods, their pros and cons, and the method that would be used for the counting exercise, that is Evening Dispersal Count (counting bats as they leave their day time roosting sites to feed for the night).
At around 4h30 p.m., the participants jumped on the Ferney Valley bus and headed to the valley. Armed with manual or electronic tally counters, purpose designed bat counting sheets, and a healthy dose of curiosity, participants were ready to spend over an hour observing the amazing Mauritius Fruit Bats. Participants were divided into groups consisting of a timekeeper, tally counter and a recorder, and spread out to count the number of bats leaving a roost in the Ferney Valley.
The weather was cloudy, which made the bat count challenging for the participants, as they had little to no prior experience counting bats As the counting officially started at around 5 p.m., a sense of excitement was palpable among the participants. As explained by Ashmi and Vikash, participants would need to count the number of bats leaving the roost, the number of bats returning to the roost and the number of bats coming to the roost from another roost in 5-minutes slots.
Each group member was assigned a task; one would use either a traditional tally counter or a mobile app to validate each occurrence, the second one would keep records of the 5-minute slots, while the third group member would note down the records. Participants could also switch roles so that everyone gained experience of the different tasks.
The bats were quite shy on the day as they lazily left the roost in very small numbers, to the impatience of some of the participants! This did not stop the improvised bat counters from marvelling at the way the bats flitted gracefully through the air, their silhouettes darting against the foggy background. Laughter and friendly banter were observed among the participants as some bats were indecisive about leaving or staying at the roost, some even returning after seemingly having decided to leave!
The weather was not helpful, the figures were not as high as one would have expected, as the records varied from 13 to 42 bats before darkness set in. Comparatively, a bat count organized a week earlier, in a sunny but windy weather, recorded an average of 142 bats. The activity sparked genuine interest and appreciation for this amazing flying mammal.
As dusk approached and bats were hard to discern, especially against the forest background, the activity came to an end at 6 p.m. The group headed back to the bus and thence to the ‘Colonial House’ in anticipation of the debrief.
The participants shared their counts and flooded Ashmi and Vikash with questions and comments. The participants shared their appreciation of the activity, the difficulties they had encountered and the frustrations it sometimes generated. The explanations from Ashmi and Vikash satisfied the queries and brought light to the difficulties of doing a bat count, not to mention the complications of coming to a realistic estimation of the bat population.
The evening ended with a light meal shared among the participants and further discussions about the activity.
The organizers of this activity felt that this was an enriching first, and hoping the first of many to come!
May we wish you an enjoyable ‘International Bat Night’!
