Bristol Zoo Gardens Receives Grant To Protect The Livingstones Fruit Bat

By Lucy Parkinson 

Bristol, Zoo - Vital funding has been awarded to a project which aims to safeguard the future of a critically endagered species of bat and the forests where it lives.

Almost £240,000 has been awarded to the Bristol Conservation and Science Foundation (BCSF), a sister organisation to Bristol Zoo Gardens, to continue working to protect the Livingstones fruit bat for the next three years.

The grant is one of 30 awarded under Defra’s Darwin Initiative Main Awards, which gives money and UK expertise to help start up and extend wildlife conservation projects in developing countries.

The money will allow BCSF to continue its field conservation project in the Comoro Islands, which are found between Madagascar and Mozambique.
 
The grant will pay for up to 14 local facilitators to continue working with local communities while monitoring and protecting the remaining fruit bats and their habitats.
 
Neil Maddison, BCSF’s Head of Conservation Programmes, said the funding will give a considerable boost to the project: “It is wonderful news for the team and means that we can plan for increased activity to help the local people protect their forest over the next few years, including expanding our efforts to the nearby island of Mohéli.”
 
Livingstone’s fruit bats are one of the world’s rarest and largest bat species and are only found on two small islands in the Republic of the Comoros Islands. There are thought to be around 1,200 Livingstone’s fruit bats left in the wild - a perilously small population, making the fight to save them from extinction essential. 
 
Bat populations are under threat from severe habitat destruction, disturbance of their roosts and natural catastrophes such as tropical cyclones. If deforestation continues unabated the Livingstone's fruit bat will become extinct.
 
The people of the Comoro Islands rank among the most disadvantaged in the world and have typically relied on the removal of the forest – where the bats live – to make new fields for subsistence crops or for fuel. 
 
Finding new, sustainable sources of food and income (such as selling crafts or food they grow in newly established allotments) is essential to help local communities protect important natural resources such as the forest, and equally to the giant bat’s survival.
 
The Darwin Initiative assists countries that are rich in biodiversity but poor in financial resources to implement the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) through the funding of collaborative projects which draw on UK biodiversity expertise.
 
To find out more about the Bristol Conservation and Science Foundation visit the website at www.bristolzoo.org.uk/about/conservation.  For further information on Bristol Zoo Gardens visit www.bristolzoo.org.uk.
 
Livingstone’s Fruit Bat
*         Originate from Comoros, Africa
*         Herbivorous, feeding on fruit and nectar
*         Live in the tropical rainforest and tropical dry forest
*         Are listed as ‘endangered’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature
*         They are ore one of the largest species of bat in the world, with a wingspan of around 1.4m (four to five feet).
*         Bats are warm-blooded and feed their young on milk
*         They fly using their webbed fingers
*         During the day time they roost at the tops of tall trees, occasionally stirring to squabble with their neighbours
*         As evening approaches they become more active. Towards dusk, they leave their roost trees and fly off in search of trees laden with ripe fruits, on which they gorge themselves
*         They spend much of the day hanging upside down from branches
 
Bristol Zoo Gardens
*         Bristol Zoo is open from 9am every day except Christmas Day. 
*         A small charge will apply for nectar in the ‘Feed the Lorikeets’ area of the exhibit, subject to availability.
*         The Zoo is an Education and Conservation Charity and relies on the income from visitors to support its work. The Zoo is involved with over one hundred co-ordinated breeding programmes for threatened wildlife species. 
*         It employs 140 full and part-time staff to care for the animals and run a successful visitor attraction to support its conservation and education work. 
*         Bristol Zoo supports – through finance and skill sharing - over 10 projects in the UK and abroad that conserve and protect some of the world’s most endangered species.
*         Bristol Zoo is a member of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums.  BIAZA represents more than 90 member collections and promotes the values of good zoos and aquariums.