ORCID Profile
0000-0003-0576-8935
Current Organisations
Ames Laboratory
,
Iowa State University
,
Maasai Mara University
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Publisher: Museum and Institute of Zoology at the Polish Academy of Sciences
Date: 06-2014
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2021
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 07-06-2019
Abstract: The genus Myotis is nearly cosmopolitan and the second-most speciose genus of mammals, but its Afrotropical members are few and poorly known. We analyzed phylogenetic and phylogeographic relationships of six of the eight known Afrotropical species using Cytb and sequences from four nuclear introns. Using Bayesian and maximum-likelihood approaches to generate single-locus, concatenated, and species trees, we confirmed prior evidence that the clade containing Afrotropical Myotis also contains both Palearctic and Indomalayan members. Additionally, we demonstrate that M. bocagii is sister to the Indian Ocean species M. anjouanensis, that this group is sister to M. tricolor and the Palearctic M. emarginatus, and find evidence suggesting that M. welwitschii is the earliest- erging Afrotropical species and sister to the remainder. Although M. tricolor and M. welwitschii are both currently regarded as monotypic, both mitochondrial and nuclear data sets document significant, largely concordant geographic structure in each. Evidence for the distinction of two lineages within M. tricolor is particularly strong. On the other hand, geographic structure is lacking in M. bocagii, despite the current recognition of two subspecies in that species. Additional geographic s ling (especially at or near type localities), finer-scale s ling (especially in zones of sympatry), and integrative taxonomic assessments will be needed to better document this radiation and refine its nomenclature.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2016
DOI: 10.1016/J.YMPEV.2016.03.004
Abstract: Phylogenies of parasites provide hypotheses on the history of their movements between hosts, leading to important insights regarding the processes of host switching that underlie modern-day epidemics. Haemosporidian (malaria) parasites lack a well resolved phylogeny, which has impeded the study of evolutionary processes associated with host-switching in this group. Here we present a novel phylogenetic hypothesis that suggests bats served as the ancestral hosts of malaria parasites in primates and rodents. Expanding upon current taxon s ling of Afrotropical bat and bird parasites, we find strong support for all major nodes in the haemosporidian tree using both Bayesian and maximum likelihood approaches. Our analyses support a single transition of haemosporidian parasites from saurian to chiropteran hosts, and do not support a monophyletic relationship between Plasmodium parasites of birds and mammals. We find, for the first time, that Hepatocystis and Plasmodium parasites of mammals represent reciprocally monophyletic evolutionary lineages. These results highlight the importance of broad taxonomic s ling when analyzing phylogenetic relationships, and have important implications for our understanding of key host switching events in the history of malaria parasite evolution.
Publisher: Canadian Science Publishing
Date: 02-2020
Abstract: White or clear (“whitish”) wings are a distinct feature in about 30 species of tropical insectivorous bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) belonging to three families (Emballonuridae, Molossidae, and Vespertilionidae). Such wings may provide camouflage against the sky at dusk and dawn, when bats commute to and from the roost and are vulnerable to aerial predation from birds. We tested this hypothesis by comparing the contrast of black, white, and transparent plastic models against the evening sky. Compared with normally dark wings, white and particularly transparent wings indeed reduce the contrast against the sky and may also prevent overheating in bats flying in daylight. Whitish wings could facilitate earlier evening emergence and later morning return, increasing access to crepuscular or diurnal insects as food. But whitish wings become maladaptive near artificial lights, where they are highly visible when illuminated against the dark sky. Pale but colored (not whitish) wings and reticulated patterns on translucent wings in some African and south Asian bats may be variations on the same theme, functional as camouflage against a lit background of vegetation and shades.
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 09-2023
DOI: 10.1098/RSOS.230578
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 05-04-2022
DOI: 10.1038/S41597-022-01234-4
Abstract: Understanding bio ersity patterns as well as drivers of population declines, and range losses provides crucial baselines for monitoring and conservation. However, the information needed to evaluate such trends remains unstandardised and sparsely available for many taxonomic groups and habitats, including the cave-dwelling bats and cave ecosystems. We developed the DarkCideS 1.0 ( darkcides.org/ ), a global database of bat caves and species synthesised from publicly available information and datasets. The DarkCideS 1.0 is by far the largest database for cave-dwelling bats, which contains information for geographical location, ecological status, species traits, and parasites and hyperparasites for 679 bat species are known to occur in caves or use caves in part of their life histories. The database currently contains 6746 georeferenced occurrences for 402 cave-dwelling bat species from 2002 cave sites in 46 countries and 12 terrestrial biomes. The database has been developed to be collaborative and open-access, allowing continuous data-sharing among the community of bat researchers and conservation biologists to advance bat research and comparative monitoring and prioritisation for conservation.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-2004
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 10-08-2023
Abstract: Africa faces significant challenges in reconciling economic and social development while preserving its natural resources. Little is known about the erse bat community on the continent, particularly in drier ecosystems. A better understanding of the bat community will help improve and inform the management of these ecosystems. Our study aimed to provide detailed information on the main drivers of bat richness and activity at three different heights above the ground in a semi-arid region of Kenya. We assessed how bat activity varied with space and height using acoustic s ling and complementary methods. We s led 48 sites at ground level and two sites on meteorological masts at 20 m and 35 m above the ground. We recorded more than 20 bat species, including one species of concern for conservation. Our models showed that the use of space varies with bat guild, creating trade-offs in the variables that affect their activity. Low-flying bat species are mostly associated with habitat variables, whereas high-flying species are more dependent on weather conditions. Our study highlights the richness of bat assemblages in semi-arid environments and emphasizes the need for management measures to protect bat ersity in the face of habitat degradation caused by climate change, land management, and development projects.
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 28-06-2017
DOI: 10.1093/ICB/ICX011
Abstract: Host-associated microbiomes are integral components of host health, but microbiome community structure varies among and within hosts. Reconciling community variability with the apparent dependence of hosts on community function, and characterizing how functional ergence proceeds across niches, remains challenging. Here, through the study of gut microbiomes and diets of three insectivorous bat species we characterize how community structure is shaped by predicted functional properties of community members. We found that while host diet and microbiome community composition do not significantly relate to each other, host diet and metagenome function do, suggesting that diet directly selects metagenomic functions rather than communities. We use a novel inference framework to show how the discordance between community structure and functional variation derives from functional equivalence and is influenced by the continuum of shared and derived gene sets across microbial lineages. Our findings help clarify how metagenome community structure-function relationships contribute to deterministic processes in community assembly, and describe the basis for metagenomic differences across ecologically similar hosts.
Publisher: PeerJ
Date: 24-05-2018
DOI: 10.7717/PEERJ.4864
Abstract: Free-tailed bats of the genus Otomops are poorly known, and most species are documented from a handful of widely scattered localities. Recently, two allopatric species of Otomops were recognized in continental Africa: Otomops martiensseni (Matschie, 1897) in southern, central and western Africa, and the new species O. harrisoni Ralph et al., 2015 in the northeast and in Yemen. We collected additional s les of Otomops in Kenya and Rwanda where the ranges of these taxa approach one another to clarify their geographic ranges and taxonomic status. Mitochondrial and nuclear intron sequences served to identify and delimit species we also documented their echolocation call variation and ectoparasite complements. Otomops martiensseni , the southern African species, was documented in northern Kenya in Marsabit National Park. O. harrisoni , the northeastern African–Arabian species, was documented in southern Kenya and in a cave in Musanze District, Rwanda. Moreover, in iduals of both species were found together at the Musanze cave, establishing them in precise spatial and temporal sympatry. Analyses of mitochondrial and nuclear loci identify no evidence of admixture between these forms, although available s les limit the power of this analysis. Echolocation call differences are also apparent among the three localities we analyzed. Three orders of insects and two families of mites are newly reported as ectoparasites of O. harrisoni. Our results corroborate species rank for O. harrisoni and establish a zone of potential geographic overlap with O. martiensseni spanning at least 800 km of latitude. The new records establish the species in sympatry in northern Rwanda and add an additional species to the bat faunas of both Kenya and Rwanda. Future studies are needed to understand Otomops roosting requirements and movements, thereby explaining the paucity of known colonies and yielding better estimates of their conservation status. The discovery of mixed roosting associations in Rwanda invites further investigation.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-12-2016
DOI: 10.1111/AJE.12376
Publisher: SECEMU
Date: 03-2016
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-07-2023
DOI: 10.1111/COBI.14157
Abstract: Bats frequently inhabit caves and other subterranean habitats and play a critical role in subterranean food webs. With escalating threats to subterranean ecosystems, identifying the most effective measures to protect subterranean‐roosting bats is critical. We conducted a meta‐analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of conservation and management interventions for subterranean‐roosting bats. We used network analyses to determine to what extent interventions for bats overlap those used for other subterranean taxa. We conducted our analyses with data extracted from 345 papers recommending a total of 910 conservation interventions. Gating of roost entrances was applied to preserve bat populations in 21 studies, but its effectiveness was unclear. Habitat restoration and disturbance reduction positively affected bat populations and bat behavior, respectively, in ≤4 studies. Decontamination was assessed in 2 studies and positively affected bat populations, particularly in studies focused on reducing fungal spores associated with white‐nose syndrome in North America. Monitoring of bat populations as an effective conservation strategy was unclear and infrequently tested. Only 4% of bat studies simultaneously considered other subterranean organisms. However, effective interventions for bat conservation had similarities with all other organisms. If other subterranean organisms are considered when applying interventions to conserve bats, they might also benefit.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-02-2021
DOI: 10.1111/AJE.12830
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 29-11-2017
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 22-10-2019
DOI: 10.1111/ZSC.12388
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 22-08-2019
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2019
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-12-2011
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 23-06-2023
DOI: 10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0287536
Abstract: Bats are prodigious consumers of agricultural and forest pests, and are, therefore, a natural asset for agricultural productivity, suppressing populations of such pests. This study provides baseline information of diet of 143 bats belonging to eight insectivorous bat species from agricultural areas of Rwanda while evaluating the effectiveness of bats as pest suppressors. Using DNA metabarcoding to analyze bat fecal pellets, 85 different insect species were detected, with 60% ( n = 65), 64% ( n = 11) and 78% ( n = 9) found to be agricultural pests from eastern, northern and western regions, respectively. Given the high percentages of agricultural pests detected, we submit that Rwandan insectivorous bats have the capacity for biocontrol of agricultural pests. Rwandan bat populations should be protected and promoted since they may foster higher crop yields and sustainable livelihoods.
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Date: 2016
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 17-12-2022
DOI: 10.3390/V14122820
Abstract: Background and Methods: To investigate virus ersity in hot zones of probable pathogen spillover, 54 oral-fecal swabs were processed from five bat species collected from three cave systems in Kenya, using metagenome sequencing. Results: Viruses belonging to the Astroviridae, Circoviridae, Coronaviridae, Dicistroviridae, Herpesviridae and Retroviridae were detected, with unclassified viruses. Retroviral sequences were prevalent 74.1% of all s les were positive, with distinct correlations between virus, site and host bat species. Detected retroviruses comprised Myotis myotis, Myotis ricketti, Myotis daubentonii and Galidia endogenous retroviruses, murine leukemia virus-related virus and Rhinolophus ferrumequinum retrovirus (RFRV). A near-complete genome of a local RFRV strain with identical genome organization and 2.8% nucleotide ergence from the prototype isolate was characterized. Bat coronavirus sequences were detected with a prevalence of 24.1%, where analyses on the ORF1ab region revealed a novel alphacoronavirus lineage. Astrovirus sequences were detected in 25.9%of all s les, with considerable ersity. In 9.2% of the s les, other viruses including Actinidia yellowing virus 2, bat betaherpesvirus, Bole tick virus 4, Cyclovirus and Rhopalosiphum padi virus were identified. Conclusions: Further monitoring of bats across Kenya is essential to facilitate early recognition of possibly emergent zoonotic viruses.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-06-2022
Abstract: Migrating grazers and carnivores respond to seasonal changes in the environment and often match peaks in resource abundance. However, it is unclear whether and how frugivorous animals use phenological events to time migration, especially in the tropics. The straw‐coloured fruit bat Eidolon helvum , Africa's most gregarious fruit bat, forms large seasonal colonies throughout much of sub‐Saharan Africa. We hypothesized that aggregations of E. helvum match the timing of their migration with phenologies of plant growth or precipitation. Using monthly colony counts from across much of the species' range, we matched peak colony size to landscape phenologies and explored the variation among colonies matching the overall closest phenological event. Peak colony size was closest to the peak instantaneous rate of green‐up, and sites with closer temporal matching were associated with higher maximum greenness, short growing season and larger peak colony size. Eidolon helvum seem to time their migrations to move into highly seasonal landscapes to exploit short‐lived explosions of food and may benefit from collective sensing to time migrations. The link between rapid changes in colony size and phenological match may also imply potential collective sensing of the environment. Overall decreasing bat numbers along with various threats might cause this property of large colonies to be lost. Remote sensing data, although, indirectly linked to fruiting events, can potentially be used to globally describe and predict the migration of frugivorous species in a changing world. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
Publisher: Hindawi Limited
Date: 20-08-2019
DOI: 10.1111/JZS.12313
Publisher: SECEMU
Date: 03-2019
Publisher: Authorea, Inc.
Date: 25-07-2023
Publisher: Field Museum of Natural History
Date: 29-11-2012
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 18-01-2023
Publisher: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Date: 12-2020
Publisher: American Society for Microbiology
Date: 23-02-2021
Abstract: Despite being nearly 10 months into the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic, the definitive animal host for SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2), the causal agent of COVID-19, remains unknown. Unfortunately, similar problems exist for other betacoronaviruses, and no vouchered specimens exist to corroborate host species identification for most of these pathogens.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2023
Publisher: Pensoft Publishers
Date: 19-05-2022
Abstract: For forty years, there has been growing uncertainty about whether Hill's horseshoe bat ( Rhinolophus hilli ) still persists in Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda. Only known from one small area within the National Park, R. hilli is listed as Critically Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), based on its extremely small geographic range and presumed low number of mature in iduals. Here, we present and describe bat species occurrence data contributed to the Global Bio ersity Information Facility (GBIF) that we collected as part of a long-term collaborative project to rediscover this lost species. This data paper describes the survey methods and findings resulting from cave roost surveys, capture surveys, and acoustic s ling of bat echolocation activity in Nyungwe National Park and surrounding areas in south-western Rwanda from 2013-2020 and their conservation relevance. We report the discovery of an extant population of Hill's horseshoe bat ( Rhinolophus hilli ) in Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda, 40 years since the last reported observation of the species in 1981. We also report the first record of Lander's horseshoe bat ( Rhinolophus landeri ) in Nyungwe National Park and the first record of the Damara woolly bat ( Kerivoula argentata ) in Rwanda. The dataset contributed to GBIF and described in this paper includes 278 occurrence records from 10 bat species of five families detected at 71 locations in or near Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda. We include a description of the morphological descriptions of R. hilli and present the first acoustic echolocation signatures and phylogenetic information for this species.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 14-08-2019
DOI: 10.1017/S0266467419000221
Abstract: Habitat loss and fragmentation are major threats to bio ersity worldwide, and little is known about their effects on bats in Africa. We investigated effects of forest fragmentation on bat assemblages at Kakamega Forest, western Kenya, examining captures at edge and interior locations in three forest fragments (Buyangu, 3950 ha Kisere, 400 ha and Malava, 100 ha) varying in forest area and human-use regimes. Basal area, canopy cover, tree density and intensity of human use were used as predictors of bat abundance and species richness. A total of 3456 mist-net hours and 3168 harp-trap hours resulted in the capture of 4983 bats representing 26 species, eight families and four foraging ensembles (frugivores, forest-interior insectivores, forest-edge insectivores and open-space insectivores). Frugivores were frequently captured at the edges of the larger, better-protected forests, but also in the interior of the smaller, more open fragment. Forest-interior insectivores and narrow-space foragers predominated in the interiors of larger fragments but avoided the smallest one. Forest specialists showed positive associations with forest variables (canopy cover, basal area and tree density), whereas frugivores responded positively to the human-use indicators. On these bases, specialist species appear to be especially vulnerable to forest fragmentation.
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 12-07-2018
Publisher: Hindawi Limited
Date: 12-03-2019
DOI: 10.1155/2019/8248270
Abstract: Few studies have explored how human land uses influence and support persistence of forest bio ersity in central Kenya. In the case of the Mount Kenya ecosystem, farmlands and plantation forests are significant land-use types. Using point counts, we assessed bird communities in natural forests, plantation forests, and farmlands in the Nanyuki Forest Block, Western Mount Kenya. Bird point counts were undertaken during two s ling periods (wet and dry season). Compared to farmlands and plantation forest, natural forest had the highest overall avian species richness and relative species richness of all except one forest-dependent foraging guild (granivores) and nonforest species, which occurred frequently only on farmlands. Plantation forest had the lowest relative richness of all avian habitat and foraging guilds. Conversely, specialist forest-dependent species mainly occurred in the structurally complex remnant natural forest. Our study underscores the importance of remnant natural forests for the persistence and conservation of forest bio ersity and risks posed by replacing them with plantation forests and farmlands.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 06-04-2022
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 20-09-2021
Abstract: In the light of the urgency raised by the COVID-19 pandemic, global investment in wildlife virology is likely to increase, and new surveillance programmes will identify hundreds of novel viruses that might someday pose a threat to humans. To support the extensive task of laboratory characterization, scientists may increasingly rely on data-driven rubrics or machine learning models that learn from known zoonoses to identify which animal pathogens could someday pose a threat to global health. We synthesize the findings of an interdisciplinary workshop on zoonotic risk technologies to answer the following questions. What are the prerequisites, in terms of open data, equity and interdisciplinary collaboration, to the development and application of those tools? What effect could the technology have on global health? Who would control that technology, who would have access to it and who would benefit from it? Would it improve pandemic prevention? Could it create new challenges? This article is part of the theme issue ‘Infectious disease macroecology: parasite ersity and dynamics across the globe’.
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 02-07-2020
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 04-07-2006
Publisher: Pensoft Publishers
Date: 22-04-2020
DOI: 10.3897/ZOOKEYS.929.50240
Abstract: The Old World leaf-nosed bats (Hipposideridae) are aerial and gleaning insectivores that occur throughout the Paleotropics. Both their taxonomic and phylogenetic histories are confused. Until recently, the family included genera now allocated to the Rhinonycteridae and was recognized as a subfamily of Rhinolophidae. Evidence that Hipposideridae erged from both Rhinolophidae and Rhinonycteridae in the Eocene confirmed their family rank, but their intrafamilial relationships remain poorly resolved. We examined genetic variation in the Afrotropical hipposiderids Doryrhina , Hipposideros , and Macronycteris using relatively dense taxon-s ling throughout East Africa and neighboring regions. Variation in both mitochondrial (cyt-b) and four nuclear intron sequences (ACOX2, COPS, ROGDI, STAT5) were analyzed using both maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference methods. We used intron sequences and the lineage delimitation method BPP—a multilocus, multi-species coalescent approach—on supported mitochondrial clades to identify those acting as independent evolutionary lineages. The program StarBEAST was used on the intron sequences to produce a species tree of the s led Afrotropical hipposiderids. All genetic analyses strongly support generic monophyly, with Doryrhina and Macronycteris as Afrotropical sister genera distinct from a Paleotropical Hipposideros mitochondrial analyses interpose the genera Aselliscus , Coelops , and Asellia between these clades. Mitochondrial analyses also suggest at least two separate colonizations of Africa by Asian groups of Hipposideros , but the actual number and direction of faunal interchanges will hinge on placement of the uns led African-Arabian species H. megalotis . Mitochondrial sequences further identify a large number of geographically structured clades within species of all three genera. However, in sharp contrast to this pattern, the four nuclear introns fail to distinguish many of these groups and their geographic structuring disappears. Various distinctive mitochondrial clades are consolidated in the intron-based gene trees and delimitation analyses, calling into question their evolutionary independence or else indicating their very recent ergence. At the same time, there is now compelling genetic evidence in both mitochondrial and nuclear sequences for several additional unnamed species among the Afrotropical Hipposideros . Conflicting appraisals of differentiation among the Afrotropical hipposiderids based on mitochondrial and nuclear loci must be adjudicated by large-scale integrative analyses of echolocation calls, quantitative morphology, and geometric morphometrics. Integrative analyses will also help to resolve the challenging taxonomic issues posed by the ersification of the many lineages associated with H. caffer and H. ruber .
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 06-12-2019
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 27-10-2022
DOI: 10.1186/S13071-022-05516-Z
Abstract: The recognition and delineation of morphologically indistinguishable cryptic species can have broad implications for wildlife conservation, disease ecology and accurate estimates of bio ersity. Parasites are intriguing in the study of cryptic speciation because unique evolutionary pressures and ersifying factors are generated by ecological characteristics of host-parasite relationships, including host specificity. Bat flies (Diptera: Nycteribiidae and Streblidae) are obligate, hematophagous ectoparasites of bats that generally exhibit high host specificity. One rare exception is Penicillidia fulvida (Diptera: Nycteribiidae), an African bat fly found in association with many phylogenetically distant hosts. One explanation for P. fulvida ’s extreme polyxeny is that it may represent a complex of host-specific yet cryptic species, an increasingly common finding in molecular genetic studies of supposed generalist parasites. A total of 65 P. fulvida specimens were collected at 14 localities across Kenya, from bat species representing six bat families. Mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 ( COI ) and nuclear 28S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) sequences were obtained from 59 specimens and used to construct Bayesian and maximum likelihood phylogenies. Analysis of molecular variance was used to determine how genetic variation in P. fulvida was allocated among host taxa. The 28S rRNA sequences studied were invariant within P. fulvida . Some genetic structure was present in the COI sequence data, but this could be more parsimoniously explained by geography than host family. Our results support the status of P. fulvida as a rare ex le of a single bat fly species with primary host associations spanning multiple bat families. Gene flow among P. fulvida utilizing different host species may be promoted by polyspecific roosting behavior in bats, and host preference may also be malleable based on bat assemblages occupying shared roosts. The proclivity of generalist parasites to switch hosts makes them more likely to vector or opportunistically transmit pathogens across host species boundaries. Consequently, the presence of polyxenous bat flies is an important consideration to disease ecology as bat flies become increasingly known to be associated with bat pathogens.
Publisher: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Date: 05-2023
Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
Date: 09-01-2017
Publisher: Zoological Research
Date: 2019
Publisher: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Date: 05-2019
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2010
Publisher: Pensoft Publishers
Date: 13-07-2023
DOI: 10.3897/ZOOKEYS.1169.102800
Abstract: Bat flies (Diptera: Nycteribiidae and Streblidae) are hematophagous ectoparasites of bats characterized by viviparous pupiparity and generally high host specificity. Nycteribiid bat flies are wingless, morphologically constrained, and are most erse in the Eastern Hemisphere. Africa hosts approximately 22% of global bat bio ersity and nearly one-third of all African bat species occur in Kenya, one of Africa’s most bat-rich countries. However, records of nycteribiid bat fly ersity in Kenya remain sparse and unconsolidated. This paper combines all past species records of nycteribiid bat flies with records from a survey of 4,255 Kenyan bats across 157 localities between 2006 and 2015. A total of seven nycteribiid genera and 17 species are recorded, with seven species from the recent ‘Bats of Kenya’ surveys representing previously undocumented country records. Host associations and geographic distributions based on all available records are also described. This comprehensive species catalog addresses and further emphasizes the need for similar investigations of nycteribiid bio ersity across Africa.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 31-08-2020
DOI: 10.1111/ACV.12636
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 07-03-2023
DOI: 10.3390/CONSERVATION3010015
Abstract: Livestock depredation is a major conservation challenge globally, causing significant economic losses to pastoralists and threatening large carnivore species outside protected areas. Our study investigated the temporal and spatial distribution of livestock depredation incidences, carnivore species associated with livestock depredation, and assessed mitigation measures in Maasai Mara Conservancies in Southern Kenya. Using daily monitoring of livestock depredation cases, we made comparisons between livestock attacks occurring in predator-proof bomas and those with traditional kraals. A total of 305 livestock depredation incidents were recorded between January and December 2021, translating to a total tally of 1411 livestock maimed or killed. Most livestock depredation incidents occurred during the day (59%) as opposed to night (41%), but this difference was not significant. Livestock depredation incidents in the nighttime occurred mostly inside traditional kraals (34%) and occurred the least in predator-proof kraals (2%). Lions were responsible for more livestock attacks in the grazing fields compared with leopards, hyenas, and wild dogs. Hyenas were more daring and attacked livestock inside traditional bomas relative to lions and leopards. Our study concludes that predator-proof bomas are more effective in minimizing livestock depredation and can be embraced as a sound intervention for human–carnivore co-existence in communities’ wildlife conservation areas.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-10-2020
DOI: 10.1111/AJE.12783
Abstract: Bats have important ecological roles in ecosystems, but many species are threatened because of anthropogenic impacts. Tanzania has limited information on how bats respond to habitat modification. This makes it difficult to anticipate which bat species are at risk. Bat activity and species richness were assessed in five land‐use types: forest and banana–coffee (upland habitats), rice paddy, riverine and sisal estate (lowland habitats). Mist nets, harp traps and bat detectors were used to s le bats. Species richness differed between habitats. Bat activity levels were higher in lowland habitats than upland habitats. Riverine and rice paddy habitats were shown to have an important role as foraging sites for many insectivorous bats as bat species richness and activity were generally higher than other habitats. Fruit‐eating bats preferred riverine and banana–coffee habitats. We recommend using organic manure as alternatives to chemical fertilisers, and pesticide use should be avoided in rice paddies. Riparian vegetation along rivers and water bodies should be maintained as important faunal nesting, roosting and/or foraging grounds. The requirement that farming practices be at least 60 m from the river should be strictly enforced. These recommendations will help in the conservation of bats and their habitats in modified agricultural landscapes.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 13-03-2023
Start Date: 2012
End Date: 2008
Funder: International Foundation for Science
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2008
End Date: 2008
Funder: Department of Environment and Conservation, Government of Western Australia
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2012
End Date: 2015
Funder: JRS Biodiversity Foundation
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