We had a diverse range of publications come out this year, many of which illustrate the power of integrative and large team efforts. In March, a great team of disease ecologists, bat biologists, and policy experts, led by the inimitable Professor Raina Plowright, detailed a context-dependent tiered approach to minimize spillover of pathogens from bat to human populations through protection and restoration of places where bats feed, rest and aggregate. These ecological countermeasures are laid out as a model approach for diverse taxa. Tigga and former lab member Dr Iroro Tanshi contributed.

Plowright, R.K., Ahmed, A.N., Coulson, T. et al. Ecological countermeasures to prevent pathogen spillover and subsequent pandemics. Nat Commun 15, 2577 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-46151-9

Bat field research frequently involves direct or close contact with bats, an interface that could potentially lead to spillover either from bats to humans or humans to bats. To empower the global bat research community to better protect themselves and bats, the  IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) Bat Specialist Group (BSG) One Health Working Group (OHWG) issued comprehensive guidelines for Field Hygiene in June of this year:

Shapiro, J.T., Phelps, K., Racey, P., Vincent a., Viquez-R, L., Walsh, A., Weiberg, M and Kingston, T. (2204) IUCN SSC BSG Guidelines for Field Hygiene. https://zenodo.org/records/12169643

The OHWG has been promoting the Guidelines through webinars, talks and demonstrations around the world, including the European Bat Research Symposium, National Bat Conference UK, 5^th International Southeast Asian Bat Conference. Related, several members of the IUCN SSC BSG’s OHWG (Tigga, Wanda Markotter, Paul Racey, Lisa Worledge) contributed to a review, and something of a Public Service Announcement, of the need for bat handlers to be vaccinated against rabies.

M. Brock Fenton, Paul A. Faure, Enrico Bernard, Daniel J. Becker, Alan C. Jackson, Tigga Kingston, Peter H.C. Lina, Wanda Markotter, Susan M. Moore, Samira Mubareka, Paul A. Racey, Charles E. Rupprecht, and Lisa Worledge. 2024. Bat handlers, bat bites, and rabies: vaccination and serological testing of humans at risk. FACETS. 9(): 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1139/facets-2024-0056

The IUCN SSC BSG Bat Trade Working Group (BTWG) also produced a significant publication this year, with contributions from Tigga, Abby, and former lab member Dr Joe Chun-Chia Huang. The paper quantified the online trade in the US in the distinctive Kerivoula picta and received a lot of national and international attention, including coverage in the New York Times. Ultimately, it led to eBay removing all bat listings from their sites around the world (big THANK YOU eBay!).

Coleman, J.L., Randhawa, N., Huang, J.CC. et al. Dying for décor: quantifying the online, ornamental trade in a distinctive bat species, Kerivoula picta. Eur J Wildl Res 70, 75 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-024-01829-9

Lab members also contributed to other IUCN BSG efforts, with Abby developing code to calculate EOO (extent of occurrence) and AOO (area of occurrence) used in Red List Assessments:

Monadjem, A., Montauban, C., Webala, P.W. et al. African bat database: curated data of occurrences, distributions and conservation metrics for sub-Saharan bats. Sci Data 11, 1309 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-04170-7

and Touseef leading the Red List Assessment for Pteropus medius:         

Ahmed, T., Murugavel, B., Sharma, B., Ul-Husan, A. & Salim, M. 2024. Pteropus medius. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2024: e.T18725A230958344. https://www.iucnredlist.org/ja/species/18725/230958344

Related, Ben and Iroro contributed to a huge dataset of intactness estimates across Africa:

Clements, H.S., Do Linh San, E., Hempson, G. et al. The bii4africa dataset of faunal and floral population intactness estimates across Africa’s major land uses. Sci Data 11, 191 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02832-6

Finally, two papers focused on human sentiments towards bats. The first was led by Amir Batrice, a former undergraduate researcher in the lab who worked with Abby to explore how people in Asia respond to posts of bat exploitation on social media:

Batrice, A. A., Kingston, T., & Rutrough, A. L. (2024). Measuring Asian Social Media Sentiments Toward Bat Exploitation. Anthrozoös, 37(4), 619–635. https://doi.org/10.1080/08927936.2024.2345474

The second took a deeper dive into the role of emotions towards bats, focusing on how emotions towards bats changed through COVID-19 and influence intent to perform bat-conservation actions. Four of the contributors (Tanja Straka, Joanna Coleman, Ewan MacDonald and Tigga) are members of the IUCN BSG Human Dimensions Working Group.

Straka, T.M., Coleman, J.L., Macdonald, E.A. et al. Beyond biophobia: positive appraisal of bats among German residents during the COVID-19 pandemic - with consequences for conservation intentions. Biodivers Conserv 33, 2549–2565 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-024-02872-3