Malaysian Bat Education Adventure

Hi Everyone,
Well it wasn’t quite such a busy night last night, unfortunately, but we still got quite a few bats. The traps set were KL0712, KL0716, KL0718, KL0722, KL0724, KL0728, KL0730, KL0732. Four other traps were set but had to be closed after the first check because of ants: KL0713, KL0714, KL0720, KL0726. At least we haven’t had any rain for a while which is a huge relief.

Tonight we won’t be trapping in the forest, but will be heading to a large cave system about an hour away — the caves of Kota Gelanggi. Unlike Gua Samat where we went last week, this is a very large complex of around 100 caves that is estimated to be over 150 million years old. We usually trap at just one or two caves to get the bats Ain needs for her monthly assessment of reproductive condition of the females. It should be fun because this is where she gets most of her Hipposideros diadema — the big girls with big teeth!! I will also be doing more body temperature measurements, but I will probably focus of Rhinolophus affinis as one of the caves has a good colony of this species, and besides I don’t think I can fit very many Hipposideros diadema  in my ice box!!

Meanwhile, back to last night’s data. You may notice that the H. diadema is the same individual from the previous day (doh!).

I’ll tell you about our cave adventures tomorrow!
Dr Kingston

Hipposideros larvatus, a large, cave-roosting bat.

Hi Folks,
Well we had quite a busy time last night! The traps are still on the main trail but off grid (traps set: KL0642, KL0643, KL0644, KL0645, KL0648, KL0649, KL0650, KL0665, KL0701, KL0703, KL0709, KL0711, with KL0659 closed due to ants). It is quite a walk to get to them now. We leave around 8 pm and reach the traps by 8.30 pm or so. The lactating females are processed in the field and released immediately, so that they can get back to feed their pups. The other bats are brought back to the field station so that we can process them in a bit more comfort and so that Julie and I can use them for flight experiments and temperature experiments. So by the time we got back to the house last night it was around 10.30 pm, and we still had a lot of work to do!

We had some nice captures last night, Hipposideros larvatus is one of the larger Hipposideros species (FA 57.1-61.8 mm, Wt 14.3-20.5 g), with brown or orangey fur. It has three lateral leaflets (like Hipposidero diadema), and is commonly found roosting in limestone caves. We don’t catch it that often in the forest here at Krau, I think there aren’t many roosts close enough to our bit of forest.

Emballonura monticola, a small member of the family Emballonuridae

In the morning we had a female, lactating Emballonura monticola, the smallest member of a new family for you, the Emballonuridae (or Sheath-tailed bats). It has dark brown fur, and quite large eyes as you can see in the photo. The forearm ranges between 38-47 mm and weight 4.0-6.0g). The Emballonuridae have a very distinctive tail — instead of going all the way to the end of the tail membrane, it sticks up out of the membrane half way down in a little sheath (which is how they get their English name, the Sheath-tailed bats). Emballonura monticola likes to feed at the forest edges and in tree fall gaps, so we don’t usually get it in the traps. However, it does like to roost in small rock caves, or along the side of fallen logs in the forest understory, so we occasionally catch them when we have a harp trap near a roost.

So on to the data:

Fingers crossed for another good night tonight!

Dr Kingston

Hi Everyone,

With the bad weather we have been having everyone has been getting rather bored and frustrated as we haven’t been able to go out and catch bats. To stop everyone going completely crazy, on Sunday we paid a visit to the local kindergarten in the Orang Asli (aborigine) village of Penderas, about a mile from Kuala Lompat. They were tidying up the school to be ready for a district wide competition to find the best kindergarten in Temerloh district. They wanted some murals to brighten the place up a bit, so we volunteered to help. Of course our main mural was going to be about bats, and how important they are in the local peoples’ lives!

So, 10 am we arrived, it was all a bit chaotic as there were loads of kids running about the place, and electricians rewiring, teachers cleaning, and village men crafting a new roof for the outdoor rest area. But we found some walls and got started. On the outside of the building we painted the Malaysian flag, and a large number one with bits of the flag worked into it. But the real masterpiece was inside, where we painted a scene about bats and put up a simple message on the top wall:
“They who live in caves and forests,
Eating insects, dispersing seeds and pollinating flowers,
Helping us everyday even though we don’t realize it,
They who we need to take care of!
(Fruits + Flowers)-Insects = Love bats!”

We spent all day doing it, and didn’t quite finish the bat mural (Zam is going to finish it off today), but it was great fun, if a bit exhausting! Below are some of the photos.

The Kindergarden at Penderas. Top: the play area. Middle: some of the local children. Bottom: inside the classroom.

Left: Jirah, Fatim and Jovic working on the Malaysian flag. Right: Mimi painting fruits that are pollinated or dispersed by bats

Left: Saveng putting the final touches to the Malaysia 1 mural. Right: Ain still working on the bat poem

Left: Zie, Julie and Ain at work on the bat mural. Right: Dr Kingston painting a Cynopterus dispersing a fig!

Top: Ain with the bat mural poem. Bottom left: Saveng, Julie and Jovic with Saveng's "Malaysia 1" mural. Bottom right: The USM girls' Malaysian flag mural

The bat mural at the end of Sunday. Not quite finished, but almost there!

The team at the end of a hard day!

The start of the main trail -- still pretty wet!

Hi Folks
Well at long last we have some bat data for you from last night! Hurrah. It actually didn’t rain on Friday or Saturday, but we couldn’t reach the trap locations because one of the streams we need to cross was still too high for us to get through without being chest deep in water! Even the main trail near the house is still pretty wet, as you can see from the pictures (glad I brought my rubber boots with me!)

But yesterday the stream had dropped and we were able to set and get to traps. The traps are still off the main study grid, and I have to confess I’m not entirely sure where they all are these days — we are continuing along the main trail, but there are also traps set on various little side trails that I’m not familiar with. Fortunately we had two of our Orang Asli workers with us (last night it was Mat Degu and his son Jamalruddin) so we don’t get too lost! So the traps set were KL0651, KL0652, KL0653, KL0654, KL0655, KL0637, KL0638, KL0639, KL0640, KL0641, KL0646, KL0647, and it was a clear night with no rain.

As you will see we caught our first Phoniscus atrox of the season; I’d be wondering where they had all got to! And one of the Kerivoula pellucida  escaped before we could get the measurement data (grrrr!). All the females were lactating, although it looks like a few of them are close to finishing, and the young are being weaned. That means we will probably start to see more juveniles in the captures in the coming weeks as they start to forage independently. So here are the data:

Hi Everyone

Once again we were rained off last night   We had extremely heavy rainfall from 6.30 pm until about 9 pm, so we had to close the traps. The river levels are back up again, and we are anxiously monitoring the levels to be ready for another flood, if we get heavy rain again tonight we might be in trouble.

Everyone is getting really frustrated and bored,  and we are all desperate to work tonight!

On Monday, the team was joined by four students from a the Science University of Malaysia (USM) which is in the north of the country. Fatim, Diah, Jirah and Mimi (all women) are with the project for six weeks for practical training as part of their degree in Biodiversity and Conservation. This is a common practice in Malaysian universities — you go for 6-10 weeks in your third year (out of four years) to get experience doing research. They are settling in really well and seem to enjoying themselves, although I’m sure they’d like it even more if we were able to catch bats!

Mimi, Jirah and Diah getting ready to go to the cave on Wednesday

Fatim (right) helping Julie (left) take photos of the bat wing shapes. The bat is laid out on the blue mat and its wings taped into position for the photo. It only takes a couple of minutes and the bat is fine afterwards. From the photos Julie can measure the shape of the wing with great accuracy and can compare the shapes of different species.

Fingers crossed that we can work tonight
Best wishes
Dr Kingston