The Bat Next Door

Madagascar’s bats are helping to fight insect infestations in the country’s rice fields – so, can the locals learn to love their new neighbours?

- Joan De La Malla

Lying off the east coast of Africa, Madagascar is home to more than 40 species of bat, most of which are endemic (including Peters's wrinkle-lipped bat, pictured). As their natural rainforest home is cleared for rice paddies, these winged mammals are finding themselves living in increased proximity to humans – who often view them as a bad omen, an expendable nuisance, or an easy meal. Yet bats are incredibly valuable to local livelihoods. As voracious insect-feeders, some offer a free pest control service to farmers, while their nutrient-rich guano is an effective agricultural fertilizer.

Chaerephon Atsinanana (a free-tailed bat) is one of six bat species that researcher Adrià López-Baucells – from the Natural Sciences Museum of Granollers, Spain – and his team spotted flying in from forest or village roosting spots to feast on insects in Madagascar’s rice fields.

Rice farming has grown exponentially in the past five years, driven by a rapidly expanding human population. “Madagascans are quite poor, so they are really dependant on rice for their survival,” says photographer Joan. “The country consumes more rice per capita than anywhere in the world and it’s the most important exporter, too.”

Madagascar’s rainforests are being felled at an alarming rate. “There’s been about a 65 per cent reduction in forests in the past 80 years,” says Joan. Alongside bats, the trees harbor animals such as lemurs, chameleons and aye-ayes.

Insect pests, such as the paddy swarming armyworm and grass webworm, have a devastating impact on rice crops, causing more swathes of forest to be cleared to create new paddies. However, the researchers believe that promoting bats as pest controllers will allow a mutually beneficial relationship to take wing.