Bats as food? |07 September 2009

Both papers are relevant to our region, the latest paper being concerned with poor rural communities in Madagascar who supplement an otherwise limited diet by hunting lemurs, tenrecs, bats and birds.  The earlier paper concentrated specifically on fruit-bats as bushmeat and included data from Seychelles, but covered all other countries where fruit bats occur.

In most countries where fruit-bats are hunted, they are a source of subsistence food for otherwise impoverished people.  In some countries they are caught to satisfy the demands of immigrant populations such as the Chinese populations in the South Pacific and Malaysia.  A recent report by the BBC highlighted the possibility that fruit-bats are likely to become extinct in six years in Malaysia if the present rate of consumption continues. Many islands' populations of fruit bats are also under severe pressure due to continued consumption.

There are three species of fruit bats under threat on Madagascar and even some insectivorous bats are under pressure from hunting.  In the Comores, Mauritius and Rodrigues bats are currently not a source of food.  Only in Seychelles are bats widely eaten and found on menus in restaurants and hotels.  If the demand from tourists increases Seychelles may also join the many countries around the globe where the bats become a memory rather than living proof of how we care for our environment.
                                                                                                            
Contributed by Nature Protection Trust of Seychelles