Nigeria Field Update 2024: Integrative Disease Ecology Field Season Successfully Completed!

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Our second field season in Nigeria wrapped up this summer after an intensive seven months of bat surveys and sampling (November 2023 – June 2024). Ben led a field team of 15 to survey 17 caves across two sites in southern Nigeria sampling 1266 bats. This work is part of our larger collaborative effort to understand how human disturbance affects the complex relationships between bats, their environment, and their host viruses – critical knowledge for predicting and preventing viral spillover events. While focusing on the ever-cute Egyptian fruit bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus), the team also sampled other 17 bat species including the beautiful Otomops martiensseni, a new country record for Nigeria!

The team collecting samples
Caving is fun!
Ben installing an air sampler to trial a new e-sampling technique in a cave

Perhaps most importantly, this field season significantly strengthened the local capacity for bat research in Nigeria. Tigga and Dr. Simon Anthony were there to train field team on biosafety, sampling techniques etc.

Tigga demonstrates the use of calipers

The field season came with its fair share of challenges—maintaining cold chains for sample preservation was no cakewalk, with liquid nitrogen sources a bone-rattling 10-hour drive away. Add that to the logistical hurdles of hauling a 15L liquid nitrogen-charged dry shipper up and down a steep mountain, requiring a grueling 9-hour hike each way. But the dedication of the field team, especially our Nigerian colleagues, made it all fun.

Ben and Tigga took time to visit the Conservator of Park, Cross River State National Park
When you have a 9-hour hike on your hands, it’s hard not to stop every now and then for snacks and photos!
You need an army of enthusiastic porters all the time

GBatNet meeting 2024: building a sustainable future for bats

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To promote a shared vision of sustainable bat diversity in a changing world, the Global Union of Bat Diversity Networks (GBatNet) organized a meeting in Houston, Texas, from May 21–23, 2024. The event united 79 participants, including 19 vibrant student representatives, among them were Abby, Ashraf, and Touseef from Kingston Lab, showcasing the lab’s leadership in global conservation efforts. Fifteen working groups shared updates on their projects and set actionable goals for the next 1–3 years. Student representatives actively engaged with the working groups, exploring opportunities and contributing their energy and ideas.

Participants of GBatNet 2024 united for a sustainable future in bat diversity

From Green Canopies to Golden Fields: Ashraf Presents the Odyssey of Bangladeshi Bats to Texan Audiences

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Ashraf was telling a bat story, keeping the audiences hanging on every word

At the 42nd annual Texas Society of Mammalogists meeting in February 2024, Ashraf presented a poster on how bat assemblages are responding to land-use change in Bangladesh. During his two-year adventure in the world of bats, he documented 16 bat species across 5 families and 4 feeding guilds, employing a combination of mist nets and harp traps. His research illustrates that bat species diversity is greater in forests compared to degraded land-use within the protected areas. In addition, Ashraf demonstrated that bat species composition varies across study sites, emphasizing that forested areas are home to specialist bat species, in contrast to degraded sites. Remarkably, Ashraf’s study pioneered the use of the harp trap as a successful method for capturing forest understory bats in Bangladesh, representing a substantial leap forward in the country’s bat research.

Bat Nerds on the March Again at the Annual Texas Tech Biological Sciences Symposium

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Just like in any other lab, it’s a time-honored tradition for Kingston’s lab members to attend the annual TTABSS. This year, four members showcased parts of their PhD dissertation work. Abby snagged the Best Oral Presentation in Ecology award! Hurray!

Abby in action presenting her award-winning talk!

Isham, Ashraf, and Touseef also did their part in keeping this tradition alive, presenting on community ecology in fragmented habitats, species responses to land-use change, and bat responses to heat stress.

Ashraf explains the his research into the understudied bat species of Bangladesh
Amir standing proudly with his masterpiece!

But let’s not forget our recent undergraduate bat scientists who had their chance to shine at TTABSS! This year, we’ve got Amir Batrice stepping up to present his work on “Measuring Asian Social Media Sentiments Towards Bat Exploitation”.

Isham (and his coffee!) presenting on species assemblages in Malaysia
Touseef (and his professional looking title slide)

We’re aiming to bring home even more awards for the lab in the future. You BAT that’s right! We’re keeping our eyes peeled for more conferences to hit up!

Bridging Gaps in One Health research: Touseef’s Call for Research in Environmental and Ecological Issues and Sustainable Food Systems

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Touseef and co-authors conducted a comparative analysis of abstracts presented at the 1st (2011) and 6th (2020) World One Health Congresses (WOHC) to examine the evolution and current state of One Health research, focusing on demographic, disciplinary scope, and geographical representation. 

Key findings include:

  • Disease Surveillance remained the most represented research category at both congresses, indicating a consistent priority within One Health research.
  • Environmental and Ecological Issues and Sustainable Food Systems were among the least represented categories, despite the growing global emphasis on sustainable development challenges.
  • A significant increase in Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) research, from 1% of abstracts in 2011 to 13% in 2020, highlights evolving research priorities.
  • Authors from Very High Human Development index countries tended to focus on Public Policy, whereas those from Medium and Low Human Development countries prioritized Disease Surveillance, indicating potential regional differences in One Health research priorities.
  • International collaboration is instrumental in enhancing participation from countries with lower human development indexes, although discrepancies remain in the representation of global regions and the alignment between funding recipients and research subjects.

The Skypuppies Are in Peril – Why Does it Matter?

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The plight of large fruit bats on paleotropical islands was flagged over half a century ago. Despite this, species of Pteropus, Acerodon, and related genera of Large Old World Fruit Bats (herein, LOWFB) remain among the most endangered bat groups globally. Naturally, Tigga stepped up collaborating with esteemed bat scientists F.B. Vincent Florens and Christian E. Vincenot to explore this pressing issue. They utilized the IUCN Red List assessments and information from the literature to uncover why these bats are in trouble. No surprise here – habitat loss, hunting, climate change, and persecution (Let’s dub them the BIG FOUR) pose significant threats to the LOWFB. These poor bats are built differently, with biological and ecological attributes that make them even more vulnerable to these threats, accelerating their population decline.

Viewer discretion is advised!😔 Sourced: Social media.

So why should we care? Well, because they’re keystone species! Losing these skypuppies could set off a domino effect throughout native ecosystems. Check out the publication to discover more about the proposed conservation strategies aimed at halting the decline of these critical bats, especially in island habitats.

Bat-Tastic News! Another lab member earns a scroll: Congratulations Dr. Obitte!

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It is another super fine day when we hear of another success from the lab. Dr. Obitte has gone and defended his PhD today! His hard work on identifying the socio-ecological drivers and consequences of bat hunting in the Afrotropics has paid off! Hats off to Ben! We want to give a big Thank You to his fellow committee members and all the other folks who have been involved, both directly and indirectly, throughout his PhD journey.

Lots of Science and Lots of Fun at the IUCN Red List Workshop and 14th African Small Mammal Symposium!

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Abby presenting her talk
Tigga explaining “What is GBatNet”

This September Tigga and Abby joined bat researchers from across Africa and around the world at the IUCN African bats Red List workshop and 14th African Small Mammal Symposium in Swakopmund Namibia. While there, Tigga led an evening workshop on grant writing, and Abby, along with fellow GBatNet student representative Cecilia Montauban, led one for students on writing applications.

Kingston Lab past and present
Welwitschia!
A good sign
Small mammal tracks
Dunes as far as the eye can see

After the Red List workshop, they joined the African Small Mammal Symposium and presented work on modeling bat hunting in Sub-Saharan Africa and GBatNet. A mid-week field trip to the Gobabeb Training and Research Centre yielded some spectacular dunes and desert small mammal sightings!

Tigga made it to the top!

Bats, Trees, and More Bats!—Isham’s Summer Fieldwork

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Y’all know the quintessential activity for graduate students in the Kingston Bat Conservation Ecology lab – you guessed it: fieldwork!

One of the bats the team captured last summer. It quickly became a darling to the whole team!

Isham led another field season in the summer of 2023, and it gets better each passing year! The weather favored them, and they had successful nights of bat trappings. The team covered two sites throughout the summer, capturing over 500 bats and surveying approximately 200 vegetation plots. Whew, that’s a lot of plots!

Dr. Kingston standing in front of the grand Mersawa tree.

Things really picked up when Dr. Kingston jumped on board halfway through the summer to gather materials for the Broader Impacts component of the project. She spent countless hours each day capturing some fine videos of the forests, the bats, and all the other critters calling the forest their home.

Here’s one with the team from Malaysia National University (UKM) after we wrapped up processing the final bat for the summer!

At the moment, we’re gearing up to get some of our hard work published! One of our projects, which is part of Isham’s dissertation is to look into processes behind the disassembly of bat assemblages when faced with fragmentation. We’re working hard to get this one published, so y’all best stay tuned for some more bat science straight out of the Kingston lab!