Bats in the Anthropocene: Conservation of Bats in a Changing World

This book focuses on central themes related to the conservation of bats. It details their response to land-use change and management practices, intensified urbanization and roost disturbance and loss. Increasing interactions between humans and bats as a result of hunting, disease relationships, occupation of human dwellings, and conflict over fruit crops are explored in depth. Finally, contributors highlight the roles that taxonomy, conservation networks and conservation psychology have to play in conserving this imperilled but vital taxon.

With over 1300 species, bats are the second largest order of mammals, yet as the Anthropocene dawns, bat populations around the world are in decline. Greater understanding of the anthropogenic drivers of this decline and exploration of possible mitigation measures are urgently needed if we are to retain global bat diversity in the coming decades. This book brings together teams of international experts to provide a global review of currentunderstanding and recommend directions for future research and mitigation.

Bats in the Anthropocene.- Urbanisation and its effects on bats – a global meta-analysis.- Bats and roads.- Responses of tropical bats to habitat fragmentation, logging, and deforestation.- Insectivorous bats and silviculture: balancing timber production and bat conservation.- Bats in the anthropogenic matrix: Challenges and opportunities for the conservation of Chiroptera and their ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes.- Dark matters: the effects of artificial lighting on bats.- Bats and water: anthropogenic alterations threaten global bat populations.- White-nose syndrome in bats.- Zoonotic viruses and conservation of bats.- Impacts of Wind Energy Development on Bats: a Global Perspective.- Exploitation of Bats for Bushmeat and Medicine.- The conflict between pteropodid bats and fruit growers: species, legislation and mitigation.- Bats and buildings: The conservation of synanthropic bats.- Conservation ecology of cave bats.- The roles of taxonomy and systematics in bat conservation.- Networking networks for global bat conservation.- Cute, Creepy, or Crispy – how values, attitudes and norms shape human behavior toward bats.