Sharing the Knowledge

Deep in Rwanda’s Gishwati-Mukura National Park, a small acoustic detector records a bat’s echolocation call. This data point—along with many others—will help researchers learn more about the bats that make this park their home, which will, in turn, help conservationists know which areas are most crucial to protect as bat habitat. Bat Conservation International (BCI) and partners began using this technology in Rwanda’s Nyungwe National Park several years ago and have recently expanded the project to include Gishwati-Mukura National Park, the nation’s newest national park.

Gishwati-Mukura is on a ridge that divides the watersheds of the Congo and the Nile rivers, more than a three-hour drive north of Nyungwe National Park. Unlike Rwanda’s three other national parks—Volcanoes National Park in the high central mountains of Rwanda, Akagera in the low-lying plains, and Nyungwe in the mountainous and oldest rainforest in Africa—Gishwati-Mukura is a conservation work in progress. The park was established less than 10 years ago to address several land use concerns, including illegal mining and livestock farming. Already, the restoration of the park’s indigenous hardwoods and bamboo, providing habitat for chimpanzees, monkeys, and hundreds of species of birds, is visibly apparent.

This ecosystem is also a hotbed for bat species, so BCI and partners are working to gather data about the bats that live there, continuing an effort that began more than five years ago.

Back in 2019, a team of BCI scientists, including Chief Scientist Winifred Frick, Ph.D., and Director of Endangered Species Interventions Jon Flanders, Ph.D., traveled to Nyungwe National Park to engage park rangers with the long-shot goal of finding a long-lost bat that had not been seen for nearly four decades.

After training park rangers in the use of acoustic monitors, BCI team members and conservation partners set out with the newly trained Nyungwe rangers to conduct the first intensive survey for the elusive Hill’s horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus hilli). The species was last seen in 1981 and was feared extinct. Remarkably, the team found two bats with unusual visual markings: a horseshoe shape on their flat noses. They were later confirmed to be the elusive species.

Working together to set up acoustic monitoring stations, the team began compiling data. Using this acoustic monitoring data, the researchers learned which areas held the highest levels of Hill’s horseshoe bat activity, which they used to inform the next multinational expedition in 2022. The knowledge gained from the acoustic data collection helped the team determine where they should spend the most effort trying to catch bats for further study, increasing the success of trapping and radio-tracking in 2022 since they could concentrate their efforts in bat-rich areas.

Each time a bat was caught, the scientists recorded the acoustic calls it produced, comparing the data to existing records to confirm the species and log the additional information. Using this data, Nyungwe park rangers helped learn about the range of each species in the park, including Lander’s horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus landeri), Damara woolly bat (Kerivoula argentata), and Cameroon leaf-nosed bat (Doryrhina camerunensis).

Recently, during a five-day training session, Peace Iribagiza, Bat Coordinator at Rwanda Wildlife Conservation Association, and Nyungwe’s park rangers taught Gishwati-Mukura’s rangers how to deploy acoustic monitors to collect vital data on bats in their park. BCI supported these efforts and provided the rangers with acoustic monitors.

Identifying and monitoring bats in Gishwati-Mukura National Park is expected to help park managers identify priority areas for conservation while also providing a baseline dataset to assess the long-term benefits of habitat restoration. Flanders calls it an exciting, low-cost, high-reward initiative made possible by the success and dedication of Nyungwe park rangers.

“This transfer of knowledge is a perfect model of collaborative conservation,” Flanders says. “Nyungwe rangers are demonstrating how conservation can and should work.”