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AR T I F I C I A L RO O S T S BATS A N D BI R D S FO R RE S T O R I N G RA I N F O R E S T S CL I M A T E CH A N G E &BATS TAG-TE A M HE L P F O R CO F F E E W W W . B A T C O N . O R G S U M M E R 2 0 0 8 BATSBATSB A T C O N S E R V A T I O N I N T E R N A T I O N A L BATSOF THE TTROPICSROPICS Vo l u m e 2 6 , N o . 2 , S U M M E R 2 0 0 8 P.O.Box 162603, Austin, Texas 78716 BATS (512) 327-9721 • Fax (512) 327-9724 Publications Sta ff FEATURES D i re c tor of Publications: Ro b e rt Locke P h oto Edito r: Me e ra Ba n t a G raphic Art i st: Jason Hu e rt a 1 New Respect for Tropical Bats C o pye d i to rs: Angela England, Valerie Locke Demonstrating the value of insect-eating bats BAT S welcomes queries from writers. Send your article pro- posal with a brief outline and a description of any photos to by Margareta Kalka the address above or via e-mail to: p u b s @ b a t c o n . o r g. M e m b e rs: Please send changes of address and all corre s- pondence to the address above or via e-mail to m e m b e r s @ b a t- 4 Bats & Birds: c o n . o r g. Please include your label, if possible, and allow six weeks for the change of addre s s . A potent team for coffee plantations Founder & Exe c u t i ve Dire c to r:Dr. Merlin D. Tu t t l e by Kimberly Williams-Guillén Board of Tru ste e s : E xe c u t i ve Committee: John D. Mitchell, C h a i r 6 Restoring Lost Rainforests Be rt Grantges, Tre a s u re r Artificial bat roosts attract seed-dispersing bats Jeff Acopian; Eugenio Clariond Re yes; Scott Mc Va y ; Me rl i n D. Tu t t l e . by Detlev H. Kelm Anne-Louise Band; Nancy Ha rte; Bettina Ma t h i s ; Thomas M. Read; Walter C. Sedgwick; Marshall T. St e ve s, J r.; Ma rc We i n b e r g e r. Climate Change and Bats A d v i s o ry Tru stees: Sh a ronR. Forsyth; Elizabeth Ames 8 Jones; Travis Mathis; Wilhelmina Ro b e rtson; Wi l l i a m Vampire bats offer clues to the future Scanlan, Jr. Ve rn e R . Re a d , C h a i rman Em e r i t u s by Shahroukh Mistry & Arnulfo Moreno-Valdez S c i e n t i fic Ad v i s o ry Board: Dr. Leslie S. Hall, Dr. Greg Richards, Bruce T h o m s o n , Au s t ra l i a ; Dr. Irina K. Rakhmatulina, Azerbaijan; Dr. 12 Scientists Target Gravest Threat to Bats Luis F. Aguirre,B o l i v i a; Dr. Wilson Uieda, Brazil; Dr. Help us discover what’s killing America’s bats M. Brock Fenton, Ca n a d a; Dr. Ji ri Ga i s l e r, Cze c h Republic; Dr. Uwe Schmidt, Ge rm a n y ; Dr. Ga n a p a t h y Marimuthu, Dr. Sh a h roukh Mi s t ry, India; Dr. Arnulfo Mo reno, Mexico; Ir. Herman Limpens, Ne t h e rla nd s ; Dr. NEWS & NOTES Armando Ro d r i g u ez - Duran, Pu e rto Rico; Dr. Ya - Fu Le e , Ta i w a n ; Dr. Denny G. Constantine, Ro b e rt Currie, Dr. T h e o d o re H. Fleming, Dr. Thomas H. Kunz, Dr. Ga ry F. Mc Cracken, Dr. Don E. Wilson, United States; Dr. 14 The Passing of Friends: Bob Wisecarver José R. Ochoa G., Ve n e z u e l a . Benefiting the Bridge Bats M e m b e rship Manage r: Amy Mc C a r t n e y A Bat-friendly Wind Turbine? BAT S (ISSN 1049-0043) is published quarterly by Bat C o n s e rvation International, Inc., a nonprofit corporation A Ban on Shooting Flying Foxes s u p p o rted by tax-deductible contributions used for public education, re s e a rch and conservation of bats and the ecosys- Bat Conservation in Jordan tems that depend on them. © Bat Conservation International, 2008. All rights re s e rve d . Member Snapshots Bat Conservation International is dedicated to conserving and restoring bat populations and habitats around the world. The Wish List Using nonconfrontational approaches, we educate people about the ecological and economic values of bats, advance sci- entific knowledge about bats and the ecosystems that rely on them and pre s e rve critical bat habitats through win-win solu- tions that benefit both humans and bats. A subscription to BAT S is included with BCI membership: COVER PHOTO: A Jamaican fruit bat (Artibeus jamaicensis) grabs a red almond Se n i o r, Student or Educator $30; Basic $35; Friends of B C I before taking off in flight. Bats are essential to the health of tropical forests. They dis- $45; Su p p o rting $60; Contributing $100; Pa t ron $250; perse seeds, pollinate plants and help control harmful insects in plantations and nat- Sustaining $500; Fo u n d e r’s Circle $1,000. T h i rd-class postage ural forests (see pages 1, 4 and 6). paid at Austin, Texas. Send address changes to Bat Conser- vation International, P.O.Box 162603, Austin, TX 78716. © MERLIN D. TUTTLE, BCI / 0003314 BAT S is printed on a 50/20 chlorine-free re c ycled paper with a water-based coating on the cove r. NEW RESPECT FOR TROPICAL BATS by Margareta Kalka Demonstrating the value of insect-eating bats nsect-eating bats get no respect in the tropics. I The research focus and (well-deserved) cred- it for helping to maintain healthy tropical forests goes mostly to pollinating and seed-dispersing bats, while the insect eaters have long been overlooked and u n d e r - a p p r e c i a t e d . To re c t i f y t h at situation, I conducted the first experi- mental re s e a rch to quantify the i m p o r t an c e of b at s i n p ro t e c t i n g plants from insects in forests and c h o c o l a t e - p rodu cing cac ao pl ant a - tions in Panama. My results demonstrate that not on ly d o ba t s s i g n i f i c an t l y re d u c e insect numbers and damage, but their beneficial impact can be significantly A common big-eared bat prepares to con- greater than that of birds, which have sume a katydid that it plucked from foliage long been credited with helping to con- in Panama. trol damaging insects. This research was s u p p o r t e d i n pa r t by a BC I St u d e n t Research Scholarship funded by the U.S. Forest Service International Programs. COURTESY OF CHRISTIAN ZIEGLER Volume 26, No. 2 SUMMER 2008 1 B A T S Prestigious Publications Editor’s Note: The two research projects reported here, both funded in part by Bat Conservation International, were published in Science, one of the world’s most prestigious scientific journals. Research documenting bats’ values and conservation needs seldom appears in general science journals. Publishing these two papers on a similar topic in the same issue is a rare event – and a measure of the impact BCI scholarships and grants can have on conservation-relevant bat research. Margareta Kalka, whose Science article was co-authored by Adam R. Smith and Elisabeth K.V. Kalko, all of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, was awarded a BCI Student Research Scholarship. Kimberly Williams-Guillén, whose co-authors were Ivette Perfecto and John Vandermeer of the University of Michigan, received a grant from BCI’s North American Bat Conservation Fund. Also in this issue of BATS is an article by BCI Scholarship recipient Detlev H. Kelm of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin, Germany. His research was published in the journal Conservation Biology. You can help Bat Conservation International support this kind of vital research around the world. Please contact [email protected]. This shade-coffee plantation in southern Mexico was part of a study by Kimberly Williams-Guillén (page 4).The tall trees shield the growing cof- fee bushes from direct sunlight – and help maintain biodiversity. COURTESY OF TOM DIETSCH Bat roles in reducing insect damage in the tropics have Appreciation for insectivorous bats has also been limited been overlooked primarily for two reasons: shortcomings in because most research into the beneficial role of insect preda- traditional methods of analyzing the diets of bats and a tors has focused on birds.