Big Bat Year

Nils Bouillard

Description

Can one undertake a round-the-world trip with conservation uppermost in the mind? This is exactly what Nils Bouillard sought to do in 2019, adapting a popular concept in birding known as the 'big year' and focusing instead on bats. This had never been done before and so became the ideal platform to spotlight countless conservation projects across the globe. In this engaging and inspiring account we follow Nils on his adventures – along the way discovering the extraordinary diversity of bat appearances and behaviour, and learning how we might help to protect these fascinating creatures.

During his itinerary covering just shy of 30 countries, Nils was lucky enough to encounter no fewer than 400 bat species. But beyond the impressive list, Big Bat Year is a passionate tale about the people who are protecting bats all over the world, the amazing life of these animals and the unique and doughty journey it required to set a world record. Going off the beaten path isn’t difficult when it comes to bat watching, offering the chance for genuine exploration and even discovery – as evidenced by the important discovery of a species new to science while visiting Southeast Asia. This book will appeal to any nature enthusiast, regardless of whether you enjoy chasing new species.

Sujets

• Sciences de la nature
• Sciences de l'environnement
• Life Sciences
• Mammals
• Sciences et techniques
• Biology
• Applied ecology
• Zoology
• Mammal
• Ecology
• Animals
• 454 Life Sciences
• Science

Informations

• Publié par: Pelagic Publishing
• Date de parution: 27 avril 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781784273118
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

BIG BAT YEAR
BIG BAT YEAR
A Conservation Story
NILS BOUILLARD
PELAGIC PUBLISHING
First published in 2023 by
Pelagic Publishing
20–22 Wenlock Road
London N1 7GU, UK
www.pelagicpublishing.com
Big Bat Year: A Conservation Story
Copyright © 2023 Nils Bouillard
All photographs © the author.
The moral rights of the author have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Apart from short excerpts for use in research or for reviews, no part of this document may be printed or reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, now known or hereafter invented or otherwise without prior permission from the publisher.
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
https://doi.org/10.53061/JVJH4376
ISBN 978-1-78427-310-1 Paperback
ISBN 978-1-78427-311-8 ePub
ISBN 978-1-78427-312-5 PDF
Cover image: Australian Ghost Bat Macroderma gigas © Xavi René
Contents
Foreword by Merlin Tuttle
Tenerife, Canary Islands, May 2018
New Zealand, December 2018
Pureora, North Island, New Zealand, January 2019
Invasive species
Viti Levu, Fiji, January 2019
Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, January 2019
Island bats
Grande Terre, New Caledonia, January 2019
Queensland, Australia, January 2019
Darwin, Australia, February 2019
Echolocation
Subic Bay, Luzon, Philippines, Valentine’s Day 2019
Short interlude: Diving break, Sulawesi, Indonesia, March 2019
Tangkoko, Indonesia, March 2019
West Papua, Indonesia, March 2019
How to become Bat(wo)man – aka a bat conservationist, aka a batter
Sepilok, Borneo, April 2019
Evolution
Taman Negara, Malaysia, April 2019
Kaeng Krachan, Thailand, April 2019
Reproduction
Bengaluru, India, May 2019
Mumbai, India, May 2019
Chengdu, China, May 2019
Bats and disease
Taiwan, June 2019
Okinawa, Japan, June 2019
Bats and culture
Virelles, Belgium, July 2014
Austin, USA, June 2019
Wind turbines
Sinaloa, Mexico, June 2019
Jalisco, Mexico, June 2019
Yucatán, Mexico, July 2019
Vampires and people
Antsiranana, Madagascar, July 2019
Andasibe, Madagascar, July 2019
Nairobi, Kenya, August 2019
St Lucia, South Africa, August 2019
Taxonomy
Mahé, Seychelles, November 2018
Tel Aviv, Israel, September 2019
Eilat, Israel, September 2019
Bat migration
Puerto Maldonado, Peru, November 2019
Food habits
Galápagos, Ecuador, December 2019
Rio Claro, Costa Rica, December 2019
Bats and ecotourism
Brussels, Belgium, January 2020
Acknowledgements
Index
Foreword
by Merlin Tuttle
Nils Bouillard has a passion for nature and adventure. Through his round-the-world search for seldom-seen bats and birds, he shares countless discoveries, from brilliantly colorful pit viper snakes to flying lemurs, even seadragons and millipedes. His scariest adventure, being attacked by a vicious dog, occurred while riding on the back of a motor scooter in India. For the average reader, he’ll turn the world upside down – he reports being terrified of dogs but loves bats!
While just a 23-year-old working on a Master’s degree, he decides to spend a year traveling the globe in search of bats. To his surprise, his parents not only don’t think him crazy, but they also wisely agree to support him in perhaps the most valuable education obtainable: firsthand experience. He learns to cope with a wide variety of challenges – torrential rains, sweltering deserts, communication difficulties, unfamiliar customs, and travel delays.
Nils’ original goal was to see 400–500 species of bat. However, he quickly realized that his goal was more than a little ambitious. One of the challenges lay simply in finding bat-watching guides. Also, bats could be difficult to find, given their mostly nocturnal lifestyles. Based on early experience, he lowered his expectations, hoping to reach 365 species, an average of one per day. It didn’t take long to discover that, despite the scarcity of bat-watching guides, birders often found bats equally fascinating, and were eager to learn.
Given his intense curiosity about virtually all living things, Nils was seldom bored. In Fiji, he was delayed several days by a cyclone. Its torrential rains and 160+ km/h winds washed out and blocked roads. But slow going had its rewards. He was thrilled to see magnificent Golden Doves, Fiji Bush-warblers, and small endemic birds referred to as Slaty Monarchs. The grand prize was a Samoan Flying Fox, endemic to Samoa and Fiji. This handsome, three-foot-wingspan creature is one of the world’s most diurnal bat species, an important pollinator and seed disperser.
Nils soon realized that, even to acquire a list of 365 identified species, he would also have to include bats identified only by their calls. Yes – as he explains, many bats can be identified by their unique ultrasonic vocalizations. Nevertheless, many haven’t yet been recorded, and others haven’t even been discovered. Some are too similar to be identified or rely on signals so faint that they are called “whispering bats.” Fortunately, at most locations, at least a few species used calls so loud and unique that they could be identified. He would add species to his list only when he personally saw or recorded them in the wild, or on lucky occasions, when he could accompany local researchers capturing bats for study. Great care was taken to minimize disturbance.
Nils first became fascinated by bats when he met several close up during a field trip for young people, sponsored by the Natagora-Jeunes youth club in Virelles, Belgium. He was immediately intrigued by the amazing diversity and worldwide importance of bats. But unlike most people, he was especially curious to learn about their sophisticated use of echolocation to navigate. Even better, they could often be identified by their unique calls. Nils’ around-the-world bat junket began due to a combination of extreme fascination with these creatures and his love of extra-big challenges.
Readers wishing to learn more about these elusive animals will enjoy the special effort Nils has taken to explain interesting adaptations and behaviors, in sidebar boxes strategically located between stories of adventure. The sidebar information is carefully researched and clearly explained, covering diverse topics from reproduction, feeding and migration to threats, disease and taxonomy.
You’ll share in his excitement at meeting flying foxes as large as eagles and Bumblebee Bats that weigh less than 2 g (the same as a U.S. penny), and at discovering stunningly bright-colored painted bats in Asia and Yellow-Winged Bats in Africa. His finds include giant Naked Bats in Malaysia, the world’s largest insect-eaters, and Horseshoe Bats as strange as any dinosaur, in the Philippines. In his year-long quest you will meet some of the world’s rarest, strangest, and most important species, and hopefully will want to learn more about these elusive, long-misunderstood mammals.
This isn’t just the story of an incredibly challenging trip, limited to reporting of the 396 bat species he found. It’s also about visits to out-of-the-way places you’ve never heard of before, and the unusual foods, customs and other wildlife Nils excitedly observes and describes. His bird list is impressive. And he even reports the thrill of finding his first seadragon, a tiny seahorse, while scuba-diving off the coast of Indonesia.
This book provides a fun record of overcoming setbacks, finding unexpected bonus opportunities and meeting one’s goals. Nils admits to the disappointment of seeing vast deforestation and the destruction of unique island faunas, and mentions the sickening carnage he encountered in Indonesian markets where some 500 tons of fruit bats are imported annually, cramped in deplorable misery in tiny cages, then sold as food delicacies. He shares his disgust but doesn’t dwell on it. Overall, this is a highly informative tale of adventure and discovery, of broad interest to nature enthusiasts everywhere.
January 2022
Tenerife, Canary Islands, May 2018
There I was, lying in the bottom bunk of my bed at Drago Nest Hostel on the outskirts of Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife. Little did I know at the time that the decision I’d make there and then would change many things in my life. It’s often hard to pinpoint specific life-changing moments – in a way, all our decisions are life-changing, and we never get to see the alternative outcomes. But I can’t really think of many other specific junctures in my life that have radically shaped the course of the rest of it. Perhaps this shouldn’t surprise anyone, considering I was only 24.
It started with the seemingly harmless idea of going on holiday, to take a break from my stressful Master’s at Imperial College London. The Canary Islands had been on my wishlist for a long time and I decided to take the opportunity to tick that one off.
Tenerife, a hostel, a bunk bed – let’s get back to it, or rather the few hours preceding that exact moment. I had been going through some mammal-watching reports for hours, trying to figure out if doing a Big Bat Year was feasible. Well, to be exact, I knew it was, but I didn’t know whether it would be exciting. Big Years can be done anywhere and with any group of animals, but not all appeal to a wide audience. And without finding a significant number of species, it might be a rather dull enterprise. The more I read, however, the more I wanted to do it. I was becoming increasingly convinced that a Big Bat Year could be a worthy pursuit – that people who wouldn’t normally care about bats, for example birders, could become interested in them with me because of the familiar nature of the endeavour.
On my first morning on Fuerteventura, I drove straight to an area of arid habitat known to harbour most of the island endemics. I successfully found a couple of Cream-coloured Coursers, a strange wader tha