Feature: Guinea

Biodiversity Hot Spot: Guinea

Partnership focuses on data collection to prioritize conservation areas

by Kristen Pope

Pseudoromicia isabella is a species of bat found in Southeast Guinea that was described in 2015. It is classified as Data Deficient by the IUCN.

Photo: Natalie Weber

Partnership focuses on data collection to prioritize conservation areas

by Kristen Pope

hen Natalie Weber saw the truckload of logs scattered across the roadway in southeastern Guinea, she figured her team might be waiting a while. When she saw other stranded travelers build fires and start to cook along the side of the road, she realized they might be in for a long wait, but she took it all in stride. Weber has worked with Guinea’s bats since 2007, and she’s conducted fieldwork in many remote parts of the world, so travel delays are nothing new to her. Her latest foray into the wilds of Guinea was from late January to early March 2023 as a Bat Conservation International (BCI) Research Consultant. Based in Germany, Weber joined a collaborative field team to conduct a bat survey at four sites in the southeastern part of the country. The expedition was wildly successful, recording around 30 different bat species. To put that figure in context, the United States has approximately 50 bat species.

Survey team at Mont Bero searching for openings and suitable bat habitats around a larger rock massif where they can set up nets.

Photo: Natalie Weber

Survey team at Kassadou setting up the harp trap in front of the exit to a large rock crevice.

Photo: Natalie Weber

“The collaboration between Guinée Ecologie, Bat Conservation International, and other partners could greatly contribute to the conservation of bats in Guinea.”
—Mamadou Diawara

The four study sites included Massif du Ziama Biosphere Reserve (a UNESCO reserve with legal protections), Mont Bero and Mont Yonon Classified Forests (which have some protection), and an area near Kassadou, which is near the border with Sierra Leone and is not legally protected.

“We’re still waiting for confirmation through genetic results, but it should be a good 30 species that we encountered on the trip,” Weber says.

The expedition took place over five and a half weeks, starting in Guinea’s capital, Conakry, where the team worked with nonprofit Guinée Écologie to arrange supplies and coordinate for the four weeks of fieldwork ahead. They spent a week at each of the four study sites, conducting research off the grid without electricity or running water and often no connectivity.

Once the team reached each of the four sites, they would contact local authorities and find the guides and eco guards they needed. The field team would investigate the local landscape and look for certain features likely to contain bats, such as caves and crevices. Then they would use harp traps, mist nets, and acoustic detectors to survey for bats, setting up each day before sunset. They worked late into the night, catching bats, identifying and collecting data, and recording their calls with acoustic detectors upon release. They would usually end their days between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m.

Diving into the generous biodiversity of Guinea

Guinea is a global biodiversity hotspot, and BCI, Guinée Écologie, and other partners are working to learn more about the bats that live there. Currently, scientists lack data on bat distribution and abundance in the country, and the 2023 survey is a key step toward learning more about these species and effectively managing the land for conservation. Guinea is also where BCI and partners discovered Nimba myotis (Myotis nimbaensis) in 2019 while working to protect the Critically Endangered Lamotte’s roundleaf bat (Hipposideros lamottei) in the Nimba Mountains.

“Despite their importance, bats are nowadays little known,” says Mamadou Diawara, Executive Director of Guinée Écologie. “No systematic inventory has yet been carried out to know the diversity present in Guinea. Most of the studies that are carried out in the country do not take into account their presence. Also, it is important to study them to better understand: the distribution, the relationship with local populations, and the role they play in Guinean society.”

Around 10% of the country is designated as protected, but habitat destruction and fragmentation are significant threats. Guinea is called the “water tower of West Africa,” with 22 different rivers originating in the country, highlighting its importance in the region for humans and animals.

One example of a Hipposideros bat, which are complex with extremely high cryptic diversity.

Photo: Dr. Jon Flanders

Documenting the Species

The region where BCI, Guinée Écologie, and partners conducted fieldwork in Guinea is home to a variety of bat species, including the recently discovered Critically Endangered Nimba myotis (Myotis nimbaensis) and the Critically Endangered Lamotte’s roundleaf bat (Hipposideros lamottei). It is also home to four Endangered species, including Rosevear’s serotine (Neoromicia roseveari), Maclaud’s horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus maclaudi), Guinean horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus guineensis), and Ziama horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus ziama), along with other bat species.

“Guinea is a really important area for bats,” says Dr. Jon Flanders, BCI Director of Endangered Species Interventions. “It’s very biodiverse, but very little has been done to document the status of bats.”

The partnership between BCI, Guinée Écologie, and others is a step towards documenting the status of bats and using those data to drive conservation solutions.

“Guinea is one of the richest ecoregions in terms of biodiversity, including bats,” says Diawara. “Bats play an essential role in the ecological balance and the maintenance of ecosystems. The Guinean landscape, made up of unique forest ecosystems, is threatened by human activities through large-scale infrastructures: mining, agriculture, energy and uncontrolled urbanization. Bats contribute enormously to the reconstitution of these ecosystems through their roles as pollinators and seed dispersers.”

Building the framework of data

The early 2023 field expedition focused on four key study areas with varying levels of protection, including Massif du Ziama Biosphere Reserve (a UNESCO reserve with legal protections), Mont Bero and Mont Yonon Classified Forests (which have some protection), and an area near Kassadou, which is near the border with Sierra Leone. While this area is not officially protected, its remote location helps keep it somewhat safe from human disturbance.

“Ziama is well protected as a biosphere reserve, but in the other areas, these are habitats on the brink,” Weber says. “You can feel what was there because you can find some spots that still have an incredible diversity of bat species, but you know it’s just a remnant of what used to be there.”

The team hopes to collect more data to help assess the habitat and develop effective conservation plans to benefit all species.

“Bats are very useful animals for habitat assessment because they are indicator species, and the species composition in a certain place can tell you about habitat conditions you find there,” Weber says. She hopes the project and data “will become part of a larger picture that will ultimately help save Guinea’s environment for the benefit of everyone.”

survey team setting up mist nets at the foot of a rock massif at Mont Bero

The survey team sets up mist nets at the foot of a rock massif at Mont Bero. The very steep slope made it challenging.

Photo: Natalie Weber

Hipposideros jonesi, classified as Near Threatened by IUCN, is a cave-dwelling species with very distinctive echolocation calls and appearance.

Photo: Natalie Weber

The team collected data from about 30 species of bats during the early 2023 Guinea expedition.

To collect data, the team used Wildlife Acoustics SM4 Bat Detectors, which have large SD cards to collect data, and other equipment. While catching and handling bats is resource intensive and requires considerable training and time, bat detectors can be deployed for a few days and later collected to analyze the data and learn about the species. During the field project, 10 bat detectors were used, and two were left with Guinea partners to collect more data. The team used stationary bat detectors, leaving them out all night to collect data, along with handheld bat detectors to record the release calls of each species after they were caught. There is currently no sound library for bats in the region, and they hope this data will help create one.

Doryrhina cyclops, a perch hunting bat, is one of the species the team saw during their fieldwork in Guinea.

Photo: Natalie Weber

Eco guard Alphonse stands in front of an enormous fig tree spreading its roots on rocks at Mont Bero.

Photo: Natalie Weber

“These sounds will enable us to identify the different species present,” says Dr. Patrick Jules Atagana, a former BCI Student Scholar who joined the expedition. “In case of doubt on different species, the sounds made by the bats will enable us to identify the different species.” Dr. Atagana, based in Cameroon, was also an instrumental part of the 2019 team that discovered the Nimba myotis.

“Acoustic detectors are important in the sense that they allow us to know if a species is present or not,” Dr. Atagana says. “It may equally draw our attention to species unknown to us through their sounds. Furthermore, the use of acoustic detectors might lead to long-term passive monitoring through sampling and analyzing to determine the species present in the area.”

The work continues

BCI has been working in Guinea for a decade, though some projects have faced delays due to Ebola and COVID-19 outbreaks. Undeterred, BCI, Guinée Ecologie, and partners continue to work together to collect vital data to help save bats.

“The collaboration between Guinée Ecologie, BCI, and other partners could greatly contribute to the conservation of bats in Guinea,” Diawara says. “It would make it possible to strengthen national capacities for a better knowledge of bats; to increase awareness to change the perception of local communities vis-à-vis these species; to strengthen the Guinean legal framework for better protection of bats and their habitat.”

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