Bats are carriers of many viruses and a lot of research on flying fox fruit bats has focused on their role as possible vectors of disease. But in Malaysia, one group is using its research findings to tell us the vital role the big bats play in ecosystems. Our correspondent Rian Maelzer spoke with the co-founder of the Malaysian research project.
DR. SHEEMA "I knew from research done in other countries that the flying foxes, they actually play this very major, very important role in maintaining the health of our tropical ecosystems."
DR. SHEEMA ABDUL AZIZ Rimba Research, Malaysia "I found out that they're actually really disappearing very rapidly because of human activities such as hunting and clearing a forest and mangroves and it just seemed like this was a very important issue that was being overlooked."
DR. SHEEMA "People are really hunting them for food, but also consume them as medicine. At the same time, fruit farmers have complained about flying foxes feeding on their fruit crops in the past and they believe this necessitates eradicating the flying foxes."
"Flying foxes play this unique dual role They're both seed dispersers and also pollinators. They're also playing this very important role in durian farms where they're helping to actually pollinate the durian flowers."
ERIC CHONG Green Acres Orchard "Even my neighbors' farm, they are actually putting up nets to trap the bats especially around the fruit trees. My caretaker has advised us leave the bats alone, they actually will help the farm, so we left the bats alone, not having much proof of actually what bats do until Rimba came along and when I saw that video of the bats pollinating the durian flowers and yeah, I was very convinced."
DR. SHEEMA "Our main approach for now is really to collect evidence on the beneficial aspects of flying foxes and then find a way to transmit that to the right people. But also we need to start investigating and trialing mitigation methods in partnership with the farmers so that we can look into ways that we can help protect the fruit crops from the bats without actually killing the bats."
"We hope to get more awareness out there so that the general Malaysian public can start supporting flying fox conservation efforts and anyone who might be hunting or killing flying foxes realizes that they actually need to stop this kind of practice because if flying fox disappears from the ecosystem, if they disappear from Malaysia, they could be very negative impacts on all of us on our well-being on the economy, on industries, on all of us."