Join the Bats Without Borders #WingedWednesday Webinar today with Dr Carrie Seltzer. She will be telling us more about the iNaturalist.org citizen science platform which is used by the general public and is very valuable data source for researchers and NGOs.
Today’s talk will take place at 15 hrs (CAT) and pre-registration is essential for new participants. To register visit: www.batswithoutborders.org
If you are unable to join in but would like to catch up on this and previous Webinars, then you can catch them again by scrolling down to the bottom of Bats Without Border’s Webinar page.
Every national park has rules of conduct that are necessary to follow for the safety and protection of visitors and wildlife?
Zambia’s Mosi oa tunya national park in Livingstone, has a set of rules on a sign post that give guidance on how visitors of the park are expected to behave. These rule help to keep order and make the parks safe for everyone.
Next time you visit a national park, be sure to look out for rules and follow them.
Whilst social distancing is helping to slow down the spread of the corona virus, many parents are finding that they are now not only working from home, but having to home school and entertain their children during the day.
One way to keep your children entertained, whilst they are also learning, is to get them to explore Nat Geo’s kid’s website.
Each week Nat Geo posts quizzes, videos, science experiments, and even at-home classroom resources about animals, history, science, maths, geography and art.
They can learn more about bees, travel back in time to meet living dinosaurs and explore the globe – from peculiar places to wild weather.
Whatever they are interested in, there are lots of fun activities to keep your children entertained – and you never know, you might learn something new too!
Join the Bats Without Borders #WingedWednesday Webinar today with Professor Ara Monadjem who will be talking about ‘how taxonomy is assisting conservation of African bats’.
Today’s talk will take place at 15 hrs (CAT) and pre-registration is essential for new participants. To register visit: www.batswithoutborders.org
If you are unable to join in, and would like to catch up on this and previous Webinars, then you can watch them by scrolling down to the bottom of Bats Without Border’s Webinar page.
Given the huge impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on people across the world, questions have naturally been raised about where this new virus came from. In a rush to find answers, bats were initially blamed in a number of media sources.
As a group that is already feared, misunderstood and frequently persecuted, that information has been difficult to set straight, even when backed by science. While people around the world are working together to prevent the spread of COVID-19, misinformation has led to bats being blamed and heavily persecuted.
Unfortunately, we are getting widespread reports that individuals, communities and government authorities are evicting and even killing bats, in a misguided attempt to prevent the spread of this disease. This is making the already difficult job of conserving bats in Africa even harder.
Bats without Borders (BwB) and Bat Conservation Africa (BCA) have put out a joint statement which summarise the facts from fictions to protect both people and bats.
There is no evidence that COVID-19 originated in bats.
Currently, the source of the first human transmission of COVID-19 is still unknown. Reports from the site indicate that no bats were sold at the wildlife market in Wuhan, China. Bats were initially blamed because a virus (Bat CoV RaTG13) found in one insectivorous horseshoe bat species in China in 2013 is a relative of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. These viruses are estimated to have diverged 40-70 years ago (Boni et al. 2020), meaning that the two viruses are distant relatives. Scientific investigations are now pointing to a chain of events that may have involved a bat but most likely only through an intermediate animal species.
Bats do not spread COVID-19. COVID-19 is a human disease and as such it is being transmitted from person to person. Bats do not carry SARS-CoV-2 and people cannot get COVID-19 directly from bats. Killing and evicting bats will not prevent the spread of COVID-19 but it will have unnecessary and detrimental impacts on bat populations. The priority to prevent the spread of COVID-19 is to follow the guidelines from global health organisations, such as the World Health Organisation (WHO), including the practice of social distancing and appropriate hygiene practices.
