Caves are often home to multiple bat species. Bats may also use different caves for specific reasons; some travel to particular selected caves, known as maternity caves, just to have their pups. This means that large populations of bats rely on a small number of caves for survival.
Many caves around the world are threatened by human activities – vandalism, pollution and illegal mining of non-renewable sediment deposits such as limestone. They’re also at risk from land-cover changes such as increasing urban settlements, expanding agriculture and extensive groundwater extraction.
Cave-specific conservation and protection actions are essential to protect cave habitats for the continued survival of bats and, ultimately, the well-being of humans.South Africa is home to more than 60 bat species, at least 18% of which rely on caves for their survival. Lastly, we compared cave localities with the South African National Biodiversity Institute’s 2018 National Biodiversity Assessment and Ecosystem Threat Status map, to determine the protection level for the ecosystems where caves were located. Ecosystems on this map were classified as not protected, poorly protected, hardly protected, moderately protected and well protected. This depended on the proportion of each ecosystem type that remained in a good ecological condition.
Decreasing distances between caves and urban settlements, along with the lack of formal protection of caves, also means that more people will encounter and enter caves. This may leave caves increasingly vulnerable to disturbance and vandalism – and most people probably don’t know that it is illegal to enter, damage or vandalise caves in South Africa. Only people who are granted specific permits by a relevant government department are legally allowed to enter caves.
great podcast about the importance of bats
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