Amyot Kofoky

Cave-Roosting Bats, Madagascar

Town/RegionCountryCategoriesDate
Tsingy De Bemaraha Nature Reserve
Namoraka Nature Reserve		MadagascarAfrica, Bats, Ecotourism, Mammals14 Apr 2003

This project proposes to conduct bat surveys in two karst-dominated reserves in Madagascar, Bemaraha National Park and Namoraka Integrated Reserve. The former is becoming increasingly popular with tourists while the latter is isolated and relatively unexplored. Two vertebrate inventories recently conducted by WWF highlighted the importance of the bat fauna found in the caves of Madagascar’s karst landforms.

This project therefore aims to extend the current bat project from the rainforests in the east to the Karst areas of the north and west of Madagascar. Factors will include cave occupancy by bats, microclimate, light levels and tourist pressure with the overall plan of producing a Bat Management Plan for each reserve. Training and public awareness are key components and will be achieved through the production of information leaflets for tourists and one-to-one training of park guides.  Picture shows Amyot surveying bats in cave.

Contact the team at ramanavy@dts.mg

Project Update: September 2003

The first phase of my project took place during July and August this year (2003) in Bemaraha National Park.  Bats were surveyed at night with mist nets and during the day inside their cave roosts.

Preliminary results are very exciting, with three new bat species recorded for the park. Of even more interest was the capture of a small Scotophilus bat on the forest-farmland interface; this bat represents a species new to Madagascar and the specimen is currently being prepared for formal description. Comparisons between habitat types revealed highest species diversity in the agricultural areas outside of the park, but capture rates were highest in the protected forest. I also caught over 90 of the rare, endemic Otomops madagascariensis, leading to the first investigation of its breeding ecology in Madagascar.

Also, I found no conflict between bat conservation and tourism because tourists rarely visit the caves that contain the most important bat populations. Two national park guides worked with me throughout the six-week period and I trained them in bat identification and bat handling techniques. Two indicators of the success of the project so far are the incorporation of monthly Microchiroptera counts into the park’s ecological monitoring programme and the request for me to return next year to survey the northern section of Bemaraha

2nd RSG Grant Awarded

Read about Amyot's latest project http://www.ruffordsmallgrants.org/rsg/projects/amyot_kofoky

In June 2005 Amyot received a second RSG to continue his work.  With the second grant Amyot aims to assess the conservation status and forest dependency of two species of Malagasy trident-nosed bats (Triaenops spp.). Both species are endemic and roost in caves, but little data is available about their foraging habitat requirements. Triaenops furculus (IUCN vulnerable) is less common that T. rufus and I will investigate if this is because of different habitat requirements. My results will be incorporated into the conservation management of two important cave reserves and will lead to the production of species action plans.


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