COVID-19 has led to a global increase in web searches for bats: a risk for conservation ?

Abstract

Following coronavirus COVID-19 epidemic, global media and the Internet started mentioning bats as key actors in the spillover. This depiction often misinterprets scientific evidence about the relationship between bats and SARS-CoV-2, and may contribute to increase bat persecution worldwide if not accompanied by sufficiently clear explanations. Moreover, it is unclear whether people adjusted their information-searching behavior following this coverage.We analyzed Google and Wikipedia searches on bats and coronavirus across 20 countries in 8 languages, in January 2016 - April 2020. We i) inspected bat-related searches on Google before and after January 2020, ii) checked whether Google and Wikipedia searches on bats and coronavirus increased during the pandemic and iii) carried out causal impact analysis to assess how much the pandemic increased daily visit rates to Wikipedia pages on bats.Before 2020, searches about bats included neither viruses nor zoonoses, China, and bat consumption as a food. All these topics have become dominant since January 2020. Likewise, the number of searches about bats and coronavirus increased since January. Causal impact analysis indicated a mean 175% increase in the daily number of visits to the Wikipedia pages about bats, following the announcement of the first COVID-19 victim the 11th January 2020.Increased media coverage of COVID-19 and the potential role of bats as SARS-CoV-2 origin and spillover source seem to have massively amplified people interest towards this mammal group worldwide. Whether this might result in a stable attitude change towards bats, or affect emotions associated with their presence is unknown, yet research about this is urgently needed, as such dynamics are likely to have major implications for bat conservation.

Impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic on human–nature interactions: Pathways, evidence and implications

“…On the other hand, an increase in people's negative attitudes towards bats (e.g. concerns over the risk of exposure to the virus) has the potential to decrease the abundance and distribution of these organisms (Cerri et al, 2020;MacFarlane & Rocha, 2020;Sasse & Gramza, 2021).…”

“…The pandemic could also decrease some people's motivation to interact with nature. For example, it is increasingly apparent that it has led to substantial growth in negative public attitudes towards bats (known to be vectors or reservoirs for many strains of coronavirus; Cerri et al., 2020). Increased negative feelings and attitudes towards wildlife, often called ‘biophobia’ (Soga et al., 2020; Zhang et al., 2014), may reduce people's willingness to engage with ‘wild’ nature (Box 1).…”

“…On the other hand, an increase in people's negative attitudes towards bats (e.g. concerns over the risk of exposure to the virus) has the potential to decrease the abundance and distribution of these organisms (Cerri et al., 2020; MacFarlane & Rocha, 2020; Sasse & Gramza, 2021). Understanding the relationships among the three drivers of changes in human–nature interactions due to the pandemic is a key challenge (Box 1).…”

Disease Avoidance Model Explains the Acceptance of Cohabitation With Bats During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Bats are also associated with potentially zoonotic pathogens, including bacteria (Veikkolainen et al, 2014;Hokynar et al, 2016;Lilley et al, 2017) and viruses (Li et al, 2005;Jakava-Viljanen et al, 2010;Drexler et al, 2012). The current COVID-19 pandemic has now led to an even stronger association between bats and zoonotic pathogens than before the pandemic (Cerri et al, 2020;WHO, 2020), contributing to a more widespread view on bat persecution (MacFarlane and Sasse and Gramza, 2020). During the COVID-19 pandemic, bats have been wrongly implied as the natural reservoir for the SARS-COV-2 virus, which causes the disease in humans (Zhang et al, 2020).…”