Taking Count of Cambodia’s Flying Fox Bats
At around 6 p.m. in Phnom Penh each evening, about 5,000 large brown bats, having spent the day dangling upside down from a tree at Wat Phnom, spread their huge wings and fly out to begin their nightly search for fruit. …
And as useful and fascinating as the flying fox [large brown bat] is, the species is threatened across Southeast Asia, though conservation efforts in Cambodia have started. …
On day one, Thursday, of a three-day workshop in Phnom Penh on the flying fox, whose wingspan can reach up to 1.5-meters, experts from the U.K., the U.S. and Thailand are teaching a handful of Cambodian students, mostly from the Royal University of Phnom Penh’s Center for Biodiversity Conservation (CBC), the basics of conserving the flying fox and other endangered bat species. …
“Cambodia is certainly the country with the least research and there is no national expert on bats yet,” said Tigga Kingston, a professor at Texas Tech University and director of the Southeast Asia Bat Conservation Research Unit.
“That’s why we are here. In the next three days, we will teach them how to count and research the flying fox, and we have two field trips,” Ms. Kingston said. …
The first field trip took the students and international bat experts to the Council for the Development of Cambodia, next to Wat Phnom, where one of the largest colonies of flying fox bats can be found. …
Tomorrow, the students and researchers will go to Kandal province’s Koh Thom district, where another flying fox colony will be counted. …
Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/taking-count-of-cambodias-flying-fox-bats-45421/
