The scarcely studied bats of Nepal face a host of dangers, from
human disturbance and carelessness to lost habitat and declining food
supplies. But BCI-sponsored research also suggests – surprisingly – that
Nepalese, at least in the Pokhara Valley, rather like these flying
mammals that endure such disdain in other countries. That positive
attitude should make their desperately needed conservation a bit easier.
With the support of a BCI Global Grassroots Conservation Fund
grant, Sujas Prasad Phuyal and his field crew established the first,
somewhat tentative, baseline study of the diversity of bats in Pokhara
Valley and the threats facing them. Phuyal, a student at Tribhuvan
University’s Institute of Forestry in Pokhara, Nepal, identified 12
significant roosting sites, all but three of them previously
undocumented.
In addition to many informal discussions aimed at locating bat
colonies and determining local observations of their past and current
numbers, we also conducted a formal questionnaire survey.
The number of respondents (fewer than 100) is small, but they were
selected to cover a wide range of locations, occupations, ages, gender
and educational levels. We are confident of the general results, which
were confirmed in informal discussions.
Most people (59 percent overall) held positive attitudes toward
bats. Another 19 percent were indifferent to them, and only 22 percent
indicated negative perceptions.
Many people felt that bats are interesting because they are
secretive. Some felt sorry for them because they roost upside down. One
woman noted that she had enjoyed especially good fortune during a year
in which a bat visited inside her home.
Nepal is nestled between India, which traditionally classified bats
as vermin and only recently granted protection to some species, and
China, where bats are celebrated in art and folklore as harbingers of
good fortune. The Pokhara Valley in north-central Nepal seems to be in
between, but leaning toward the Chinese view.
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