Lizette Siles

Bolivian Bat Conservation & Community Education Project

There is a good involvement of the villagers, some of which are interested in the bat survey and come to us during this work. In the photo, a curious villager gets a personal educational workshop in Zurima.

Bat calls of non-phyllostomid species were recorded using the Anabat system.

The Moseten children enjoyed the workshop and, to our surprise, showed a great knowledge of many bat habits (Photo by Angela Selaya).

Town/RegionCountryCategoriesDate
BoliviaBats, Central and Latin America, Education, Forests22 Jun 2006

The aim of this second RSG project is to conserve bats in areas potentially important for bat populations. The project will conduct a series of bat surveys, threat assessments and rural educational workshops at 10 important areas for bat conservation in Bolivia that have never been previously studied. The areas selected are either sites that represent high priority sites for bats, such as roosts and nurseries, or sites known (or suspected) to have very high bat diversity. At each area we will conduct a comprehensive survey of the bat diversity using different capture methods and acoustic survey techniques.

This will be carried out in caves (if present) and the surrounding habitats. A threat assessment will be conducted at each site through observations and interviews with villagers. At each site we will conduct an educational workshop focusing on the bat community found in the survey, particularly in the specific threats observed. The workshops will be aimed at working against the perception that “all bats are bad” and demonstrating the importance of bats in forest regeneration and pollination. The educational sessions will be focused on the bat communities surveyed, but it will be oriented to habitat conservation in general. This project will have an important impact in bat conservation in Bolivia, because it focuses on the most crucial aspects at present, principally the paucity of information and persecution by rural communities.

To read about Lizette's previous work http://www.ruffordsmallgrants.org/rsg/Projects/LizetteSiles or for further information contact Liz_siles@yahoo.com

Project Update: April 2007

To date, we have carried out our activities in six of the ten areas that were planed, covering four major habitat types. Some important results of the bat survey include new distributional records, the first specimen for Bolivia of a recently described species, and also the record of an insectivorous phyllostomid for the first time in the dry valley habitat. Our education activities granted us many satisfactions; once again we proved that it is possible to educate adults, although it demands a lot more effort to gather them.

In all sites, adults were grateful that we take the time to explain our work and the many benefits they obtain from bats. In every community we visited, education in the local schools was also very important, and we covered 80 to 95% of all students. Many key contacts were made, especially with two indigenous communities (the Moseten and the Ava-guaraní) and with the administration of Toro Toro National Park. Although some of our activities were delayed due to the destroyed roads and flooding that sadly affected Bolivia the past months, the project is stronger than ever: we have assured the continuity of the project after this 2nd Rufford with new financing!

Final Report

Read about the activities undertaken and findings of this project in the final report below.

File DownloadSize
Detailed Final Report.pdf1.17 MB

Other Projects in: