{"id":3890,"date":"2018-09-04T11:21:44","date_gmt":"2018-09-04T11:21:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/icleiseas.org\/?p=3890"},"modified":"2018-09-04T11:21:44","modified_gmt":"2018-09-04T11:21:44","slug":"23-of-se-asias-bat-population-about-to-go-extinct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/2018\/09\/04\/23-of-se-asias-bat-population-about-to-go-extinct\/","title":{"rendered":"23% of SE Asia\u2019s bat population about to go extinct"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article first appeared on PTV News.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

BACOLOD CITY<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 Nearly a quarter of the bat population of Southeast Asia, where about 30 percent of the world\u2019s bats are found, is threatened with extinction, a US-based conservation expert said here Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a huge problem, 23 percent threatened or near threatened. By threatened, what we\u2019re saying is there\u2019s a much greater probability that they will go extinct unless we change what\u2019s happening to them now,\u201d Dr. Tigga Kingston, associate professor at Texas Tech University, said in a press briefing at the opening of the four-day 4th International Southeast Asian Bat Conference at L\u2019 Fisher Hotel.<\/p>\n

Kingston, who launched the Southeast Asian Bat Conservation Research Unit (SEABCRU) in 2007, said forest destruction and cave disturbance affect the natural habitats of bats, which play an important role in biodiversity, specifically in pollination and pest control.<\/p>\n

In Southeast Asia, she said, bat habitats are mostly forests that are destroyed when cleared through logging and for agricultural plantations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we lose forests as habitats, we lose the bats. Protecting forests is one of the most important things that could be done, and (also) protecting other natural areas,\u201d Kingston said.<\/p>\n

There is also disturbance and loss of bat homes as people enter caves to scour for limestone deposits.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo this is what happens to the animals. They\u2019re losing safe places to roost and reproduce,\u201d Kingston said, adding that in other places, people hunt bats as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo move forward in protecting them, we must protect the remaining forests. We must protect the caves where they live,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Out of the 1,370 bat species in the world, 379 are found in Southeast Asia alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cSoutheast Asia is really, really important in the global text. Yet, one quarter of Southeast Asian bats are in trouble,\u201d Kingston said.<\/p>\n

There is no exact data on the total bat population in the region because of the challenges in counting individual bats.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of population, there is no species which we can count the numbers of individuals. This is one of the real challenges. This is what makes bat work hard. They would fly, they fly at night. They move around landscapes in large scale so counting individuals is very hard,\u201d Kingston pointed out.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a handful of species, we saw populations at hundreds of thousands, but in other areas, much lower. In terms of individuals or populations, we just don\u2019t know, it\u2019s impossible (to count) for most species,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Kingston noted that the Philippines\u2019 Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) \u201chas done an amazing job counting the population for at risk\u201d bats.\u00a0 The Philippines has 79 bat species, 38 of which are endemic.<\/p>\n

Indonesia has 236 species, including 50 endemic; Thailand, 146, with one endemic; Malaysia, 133, with 10 endemic; Vietnam, 123; Myanmar, 100; and Singapore, 28. Meanwhile, Europe is home to 48 bat species.<\/p>\n

Lisa Paguntalan, executive director of Philippines Biodiversity Conservation Foundation Inc. (PBCFI), which spearheads the hosting of the conference, said Negros Island also \u201cneeds conservation importance when it comes to bats.\u201d
\nPaguntalan said there are 14 species of fruit-eating bats and at least 36 insect-eating bats in Negros.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have species that are only known to our island. Bringing the attention of the Southeast Asian nations and the global community, and having the support of other countries will be important,\u201d she added.\u00a0(Nanette Guadalquiver\/PNA<\/a>)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article first appeared on PTV News. BACOLOD CITY\u00a0\u2014 Nearly a quarter of the bat population of Southeast Asia, where about 30 percent of the world\u2019s bats are found, is threatened with extinction, a US-based conservation expert said here Monday. \u201cThat\u2019s a huge problem, 23 percent threatened or near threatened. By threatened, what we\u2019re saying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured-news","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3890"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3892,"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3890\/revisions\/3892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}