Rocha and his team used state-of-the-art ultrasonic recorders to record over a thousand bat ‘feeling buzzes’ (echolocation sequences used by bats to target their prey) at 54 sites, in order to identify the favourite feeding spots of the bats. The study, now published in the journal Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, set out to investigate the feeding activity of insectivorous bats in the farmland bordering the Ranomafana National Park in the southeast of the country. The damage which these insects cause puts the island’s farmers under huge financial pressure and that encourages deforestation.’ ‘We found that six species of bat are preying on rice pests, including the paddy swarming caterpillar and grass webworm. ‘These winner species are providing a valuable free service to Madagascar as biological pest suppressors,’ says Rocha. ![]() They include the Malagasy mouse-eared bat, Major’s long-fingered bat, the Malagasy white-bellied free-tailed bat and Peters’ wrinkle-lipped bat. And this, he believes, can ease the financial pressure on farmers to turn forest into fields.īats comprise roughly one-fifth of all mammal species in Madagascar and thirty-six recorded bat species are native to the island, making it one of the most important regions for conservation of this animal group anywhere in the world.Ĭo-leading an international team of scientists, Rocha found that several species of indigenous bats are taking advantage of habitat modification to hunt insects swarming above the country’s rice fields. Rocha’s new study shows that several species of bats are giving Madagascar’s rice farmers a vital pest control service by feasting on plagues of insects. More specifically, he’s interested in how bats are responding to human activity and deforestation in particular. He’s passionate about conservation, and bats. In fact, some of the island’s insectivorous bats are currently thriving and this has important implications for farmers and conservationists alike.Įnter University of Cambridge zoologist Ricardo Rocha. The result is devastating habitat and biodiversity loss on the island, but not all species are suffering. And a key reason for this destruction is that insect pests are destroying vast quantities of what is grown by local subsistence farmers, leading them to clear forest to create new paddy fields. Much of this destruction is fuelled by the cultivation of the country’s main staple crop: rice. ![]() Madagascar’s forests are being converted to agricultural land at a rate of one percent every year. ![]() There are few places in the world where relations between agriculture and conservation are more strained. How Madagascar’s bats are helping to save the rainforest You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.
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