Durrell Diaries: Why I am batty about bats!

In this week’s Durrell Diaries, Nicola Shaw, one of the zoo’s mammal keepers, shares more about why she loves working with Livingstone’s fruit bats and why bats have revolutionised the human world.   

International Bat Week celebrations are well underway at Durrell and our Livingstone’s fruit bat population, being the rarest fruit bat in the world, is one of the many reasons why I am so batty about bats!   

I have had the privilege of working at Durrell for nearly three years and caring for the rarest fruit bat in the world can be a challenge with lots of pressure, but it makes every single day of my job absolutely worth it.  At the zoo we have 96 Livingstone’s fruit bats made up of 44 females, 37 males and 15 pups that were all born this year. 

Every individual in our population has a vital role in strengthening their conservation. Livingstone’s fruit bats can only be seen at three different captive collections around the world and Durrell holds the largest captive population ever recorded in history (hence the somewhat huge pressure), having just over 8% of the entire Livingstone’s species in our bat tunnel at the zoo. There are only approximately 1,200 Livingstone’s fruit bats left in the world and their numbers are still declining.  

There are over 1,300 different species of bats which means there are billions of individual bats flying around the world at all times. Bats make up 25% of all mammals on earth and unfortunately, they have a very negative reputation. They are often connected with Halloween, monsters and scary vampires but in actual fact they are heroes of ecosystems and just like our Livingstone’s fruit bats they are sometimes called “farmers of the forests”. We get so much from all the different species of bats. For example, mass pollination from fruit bats gives us fruit such as bananas, avocados and peaches. The insectivorous bat species around the world also completely control our insect population as a single bat can eat up to 3,000 insects per night, helping to reduce the spread of diseases.  

Bats have also revolutionised the human world. By studying their echolocation scientists developed navigational hearing aids for the blind; by studying their metabolism we have pushed advances in the vaccine field and by using their unique wing structure we designed and created aircrafts. So, when I say we get so much from bats I really mean it! 

It's a large task to do but I keep every single bat in our tunnel happy and healthy by looking after them and their environment. All the other bats around the world need this too. Bats deserve so much more recognition than we currently give them, and you can help by doing your bit for bats.  

Spread the positive message about bats and all that they do for us, care properly for your environment, invite more insects to your garden and visit the Jersey Zoo bat tunnel. I’m just wing-ing it at this point but bats are brilliant!  

This article was originally printed in the Jersey Evening Post on Friday 1 November.