Fruit bats in a changing world

Project overview

Bats are the second largest order of mammals, and key components of many ecosystems. They have ecosystem functions related to pollination, seed dispersal, nutrient flows and controlling insect populations.

Unfortunately bats are also facing many threats. Mass die-offs of fruit bats have occurred during heatwaves, and other bats are changing their ranges and behaviours to cope with changing climates and habitat loss.

Bats are also persecuted by humans, in part because of their role in spreading severe diseases like Ebola and COVID-19. Understanding how bat ranges are changing in response to global change and human activities is key to understanding the consequences of these changes for bats, the ecosystems they support, and the human populations that rely on them.

This project will use a combination of historical ecology and species distribution modelling to understand and forecast changes in bat distributions during the Anthropocene, using museum specimen metadata as a historical baseline. It will also use spatial models to forecast how global change might influence the ability of bats to provide ecosystem services.

The study system will be fruit bats (Pteropodidae) in the Afrotropics and Australia. The project team includes experts in bat taxonomy, data science, spatial modelling, making this an exciting interdisciplinary project. The results will have implications for both bat conservation and human health and well-being.

Project Specific Training

Georeferencing and museum specimen work. One-to-one instruction by supervisory team.

Data science in R. One-to-one instruction by supervisory team, and week long course at NHM London. Spatial modeling and species distribution modeling in R. One-to-one instruction by supervisory team. Outreach. Training in house at NHM.