Collection of voucher specimens for bat research: conservation, ethical implications, reduction, and alternatives

Russo, Danilo; Ancillotto, Leonardo; Hughes, Alice C.; Galimberti, Andrea; Mori, Emiliano

doi:10.1111/mam.12095

Cited by 34 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Voucher specimens from biodiversity surveys in remote or undersampled areas provide critical documentation of bat diversity in a changing world, can confirm species identification of poorly known taxa or those in need of resolution, and are essential for the description of new species . However, lethal sampling for routine collecting or as part of studies searching for zoonotic viruses can be excessive or unnecessary, especially as nonlethal alternatives are available . Training, guidance, and protocols for researchers on safe handling and nonlethal sampling techniques could reduce lethal sampling practices and minimize collateral damage from injury and disturbance to sensitive colonies …”

Section: Challenges and Next Steps For Global Bat Conservationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, lethal sampling for routine collecting or as part of studies searching for zoonotic viruses can be excessive or unnecessary, especially as nonlethal alternatives are available . Training, guidance, and protocols for researchers on safe handling and nonlethal sampling techniques could reduce lethal sampling practices and minimize collateral damage from injury and disturbance to sensitive colonies …”

Section: Challenges and Next Steps For Global Bat Conservationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A review of the major threats and challenges to global bat conservation

Frick

Kingston

Flanders

2019

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

344

310

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Bats are an ecologically and taxonomically diverse group accounting for roughly a fifth of mammalian diversity worldwide. Many of the threats bats face (e.g., habitat loss, bushmeat hunting, and climate change) reflect the conservation challenges of our era. However, compared to other mammals and birds, we know significantly less about the population status of most bat species, which makes prioritizing and planning conservation actions challenging. Over a third of bat species assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) are considered threatened or data deficient, and well over half of the species have unknown or decreasing population trends. That equals 988 species, or 80% of bats assessed by IUCN, needing conservation or research attention. Delivering conservation to bat species will require sustained efforts to assess population status and trends and address data deficiencies. Successful bat conservation must integrate research and conservation to identify stressors and their solutions and to test the efficacy of actions to stabilize or increase populations. Global and regional networks that connect researchers, conservation practitioners, and local stakeholders to share knowledge, build capacity, and prioritize and coordinate research and conservation efforts, are vital to ensuring sustainable bat populations worldwide.

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Section: Challenges and Next Steps For Global Bat Conservationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Challenges and Next Steps For Global Bat Conservationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of the major threats and challenges to global bat conservation

Frick

Kingston

Flanders

2019

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

344

310

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Failing to disclose the destination of voucher specimens impedes their use in future studies as well as to ascertain species taxonomic identity. This undesirable practice may lead to negative impacts on the bat community caused by oversampling of collecting sites (Russo et al, 2017). Particularly in Parasitology/Disease studies, collected specimens (if preserved or not) and their whereabouts are often omitted.…”

Section: Where Are the Voucher Specimens?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Research trends on bats in China: A twenty-first century review

et al. 2019

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a b s t r a c tIn this century, China has sustained unparalleled economic development, leading to exponentially growing investments in scientific research. Yet, the demand for research-funding is large and tracing the current knowledge is a key step to define priority research topics. In this same span, studies on bats in China have uncovered an overlooked diversity and revealed novelties in bats' evolutionary history and life-history aspects. All this 21st-century knowledge, however, is scattered and a large part is concealed from most of the international scientific community in Mandarin-language articles. Here, we summarize the post-millennium (2000-2017) research on bats in China and point out trends and future directions based on neglected topics, groups, and regions. In addition, we provide an up-to-date list of bat species in China. We retrieved 594 publications related to bats in China, nearly half were written in Mandarin. At least 147 bat species are present in China, which places it among the most bat-rich countries in the world. There was a significant positive trend on the number of publications, from 12.5 annual average in 2000-2005 to 46.5 in recent years, reflecting the Chinese economic-scientific development in this century. We found marked taxonomic and spatial biases. Half of the studies in this century focused on Rhinolophus, Myotis, and Hipposideros, and the southern and eastern provinces were the most studied. Systematic/taxonomy and Ecology were the predominant topics post-millennium, whereas only 10 articles have clear conservation-driven goals. Our review shows that the majority of studies were focused on the least concern, cave-dweller species, and on bat-rich provinces. Future projects should address the effects of human-modified landscapes on bat community to define proper conservation actions. We discuss some priority actions and projects that will help to enhance bat protection in China.

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“…Therefore scientists must carefully present their 402 findings to prevent negative outcomes for conservation and highlight the ecosystem importance 403 of bats (Lopez-Baucells et al, 2017). Another concern based on disease studies is the apparent 404 overcollection of bat killed to study diseases (Russo et al, 2017). In the Philippines, for 405 example, a single study has collected 917 individuals from 13 species, another one has 406 collected 403 individuals (20 species) to isolate, and study virus associated with bats.…”

Section: Taxonomy and Systematics Of Philippine Bats 320mentioning

confidence: 99%

Bats of the Philippine Islands –a review of research directions and relevance to national-level priorities and targets

Tanalgo

Hughes

2018

Preprint

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7Effective science-based conservation priorities and policies are crucially important to 8 effectively maintain biodiversity into the future. For many threatened species and systems 9 insufficient information exists to generate priorities, or the mechanisms needed to effectively 10 conserve species into the future, and this is especially important in megadiversity countries like 11 the Philippines, threatened by rapid rates of development and with few overarching strategies 12 to maintain their biodiversity. Here, using a bibliographic approach to indicate research 13 strengths and priorities, we summarised scientific information on Philippine bats from 2000-14 2017. We examine relationships between thematic areas and effort allocated for each species 15 bat guild, and conservation status. We found that an average of 7.9 studies was published 16annually with the majority focused on diversity and community surveys. However, research 17 effort is not even between taxonomic groups, thematic areas or species, with disproportionate 18 effort focusing on 'taxonomy and systematics' and 'ecology'. Species effort allocation between 19 threatened and less threatened species does not show a significant difference, though this may 20 be because generalist species are found in many studies, whereas rarer species have single 21 species studies devoted to them. A growing collaborative effort in bat conservation initiatives 22 in the Philippines has focused on the protection of many endemic and threatened species (e.g., 23flying foxes) and their habitats. The implementation of conservation relevant policies, outreach 24 programs, capacity building, and mainstreaming of evidence-based conservation are 25 encouraged to strengthen bat conservation in the Philippines. 26 27

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Collection of voucher specimens for bat research: conservation, ethical implications, reduction, and alternatives

Cited by 34 publications

References 45 publications

A review of the major threats and challenges to global bat conservation

A review of the major threats and challenges to global bat conservation

Research trends on bats in China: A twenty-first century review

Bats of the Philippine Islands –a review of research directions and relevance to national-level priorities and targets

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