Human-Bat Interactions in Rural Southwestern Madagascar through a Biocultural Lens

Abstract

Human-bat interactions are common in rural areas across the tropics. Over 40 bat species occur in Madagascar, most of which are endemic. Forest loss is changing the distribution of bats throughout the island, with potential increases in both the abundance of synanthropic species and human-bat interactions. We set out to study knowledge of, interactions with, and attitudes towards bats in rural Madagascar, including reports of food and ethnomedicinal uses of bats, their cultural representations in folklore, and the existence of culturally enforced taboos in relation to them. We administered 108 surveys with open- and closed-ended questions with adults from the Tanala and Betsileo ethnic groups living around Ranomafana National Park. Most interviewees mentioned at least two types of bats. Over 10% of the interviewees had consumed bats and ∼20% used bat guano as a fertilizer. Around one-fifth recognized cultural taboos inhibiting bat hunting and consumption and most considered bats not to be dangerous. However, some informants mentioned that bats could carry diseases and complained about the bad smell and noise associated with bat roosts in houses and public buildings. Nearly 25% of the respondents could identify cultural representations of bats in local folklore. Malagasy rural communities interact closely with bats, but severely underestimate the diversity of bat species around them. Taken together, our results greatly increase the understanding of social-ecological complexities of human-bat relationships in rural Madagascar, offer possible pathways for biocultural approaches to conservation, and yield insights applicable to other communities coexisting with bats across the humid tropics.

Ambiguous Birds: Ideas about Bats on Flores Island and Elsewhere

“…Other Malayo-Polynesian languages place all or most bats into one of two named folk taxa. Thus, in Malay and Bahasa Indonesia (the Indonesian national language), one finds kalong and kelawar ; in Cotabato (Mindanao Island, Philippines) kabog and kwaknit (Tanalgo et al 2016:4–5); and in Malagasy, fanihy and kananavy (Rocha et al 2021). In each pair, the first term refers to larger, mostly frugivorous bats, or flying foxes and the second (e.g., Indonesian kelawar ) to smaller bats, though kelawar , for example, is further used as a general term for all bats—as is méte (flying fox) in Nage.…”

Global importance of Indigenous Peoples, their lands, and knowledge systems for saving the world’s primates from extinction

“…Although many of these communities share certain characteristics with Indigenous Peoples (e.g., long histories of place-based living, subsistence economies, and distinct cultural practices), they do not self-identify as Indigenous. The academic literature refers to them as non-Indigenous local communities [e.g., ( 53 , 54 )]. Consequently, we treat Madagascar separately from all other primate regions in most of our analyses (see below).…”

Bats and Ecosystem Management

“…These nocturnal, fast-flying, and secretive mammals may have been as enigmatic to human ancestors as they are to most of us today. The ancient coexistence of people and bats has been translated into enormous historical and contemporary cultural representations of bats in local folklore [12][13][14]. This ancient connection exquisitely celebrated in abundant reddish-terracotta rock paintings of bats was made by hunter-gatherer colonizers of the northwest Amazon during the Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene transition [15].…”

“…Human-bat conflicts often arise from damage to buildings or as a result of noise/ smelly caused by synanthropic species [14,40] or due to fruit crop invasion by frugivorous species [21,41]. These are other key areas in which ethnobiological work can substantially contribute to support evidence-based and culturally sensitive strategies aimed at reducing negative feelings toward bats.…”

“…As human numbers increase and people encroach deeper into the remaining natural habitats, human-bat interactions are becoming more frequent, with often undesirable consequences for both humans and bats [14]. However, bats are often considered keystone species, as they play an important role in many ecosystem services [89], bat populations are declining worldwide mainly because of habitat destruction [90] and increased population control [91,92].…”