Science

Bats in peril: flying foxes past and present

• Fascinating
• Adventure
• Inspirational

Flying foxes are a genus of 65 species of bats found only in the Old World. Many species flying foxes teeter on the brink of extinction. Overhunting and loss of habitat will wipe out these mysterious creatures before we even understand the most basic of questions--"where did they come from?" To protect them, we must also ask the question "where are they going?" to ensure their future genetic health and use this information to improve our own global health.

I will sequence new genes related to olfactory reception and immune response in addition to standard mitochondrial genes. This data will allow us to figure out the history of each bat population and determine how they are linked to one another. The samples I have thus far are only from wild-caught bats.

This is where I really need help! Since many of these bats are rare and protected, the best representations of their populations are in museum drawers all around the world. Your donations will help fund my travel to various collections to sample these bats. I will be taking 4mm wing punches from these museum skins and taking them back to the American Museum of Natural History in New York for genetic work. The donations will cover my cost of travel, lodging, shipping fees, and some uncommon lab equipment (such as biopsy punches). The sequences from the skins will tell us what we do and do not have to capture for a full sampling and help save on our overall cost of field expeditions in the future.

If there is leftover money, I would like to use it during my next field season to pay the Indonesian technicians and field assistants that we will hire. This would help greatly with local capacity building in one of the most poorly studied biodiversity hotspots in the world. 

Where did they come from?
Flying foxes are an oddity even amongst bats. They have lost the ability to use sonar that other bat species possess. Instead, they rely on their large eyes and acute sense of smell, seeking out fruit and nectar and helping plants spread their seeds and pollen. Their ability to reach distant oceanic islands is unique and demonstrated by their vast range from east of New Guinea, throughout Southeast Asia, all the way to the islands off eastern Africa. How they are related to other bats remains a mystery and requires the evolutionary trees we will construct with our data.

Where are they going?
This question is two-fold--we are looking at it in both the genetic sense and the literal sense. We must determine if flying foxes have a healthy amount of genetic variation if we want to ensure their survival. Without variation, their risk of extinction rises since they cannot adapt to a dynamic environment as quickly.

We also must understand this question in the most literal sense. Tracking bats on foot is difficult, but genetic sampling of bats can tell us where populations are located before mounting a field expedition. If we determine the dispersal routes of these bats, it can prove a boon to those interested in global health. While birds have been recognized as important carriers of disease, flying foxes have largely been ignored until very recently in this field. Flying foxes are natural reservoir hosts for many emerging infectious diseases and have been implicated as the source of viruses that have caused death in pigs, horses, and humans. We need to understand the ecology and evolution of a host as much as a pathogen in order to create preventative measures in case of an epidemic.

This project is a part of the #SciFund Challenge. For donors who would like to remain anonymous, you may indicate that in a note to me. Thanks!

Keep up with the project by following me on twitter!

Note: How RocketHub works

1. RocketHub is not an investment or charity. It is an exchange: funds from fans for rewards from me.
2. It's an All & More funding mechanism: if I don't reach my financial goal I get to keep what I raise. But if I do reach my goal, I get access to exciting opportunities.