Bats play an important role in many ecosystems around the world – they are seed dispersers, pollinators, nutrient cyclers, and food web pillars. They enhance ecosystem resilience, contribute to agricultural productivity, and support biodiversity, and are often crucial to maintaining balanced, healthy ecosystems.
However, despite making up 20-25% of all mammals on Earth, bats have been mired in misinformation and myth, resulting in a lack of funding and discouraging their study. This issue is particularly acute in Africa, where bat species diversity is 4 to 5 times higher than in Western Europe, and where increased expertise has the potential to significantly advance chiropterology.
Enter Dr Paul Webala. The trailblazing ecologist is building a legacy by advancing the field of chiropterology in Eastern Africa and partnering with Pivotal to provide customers around the world with actionable state of nature intelligence. We recently sat down with Paul to hear about his journey into the field.
Dr Paul Webala is a National Geographic Explorer, published author, and a senior lecturer of wildlife biology at Maasai Mara University, Kenya. He has held positions at National Museums of Kenya, Kenya Wildlife Service, Karatina University, and is the former Head of Department of Forestry and Wildlife Management and Director for Research at Maasai Mara University. He is a regional expert on small mammals, especially bats, with extensive fieldwork experience. Dr Webala is co-chair of Bat Conservation Africa, and a member of the Bat Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission. As an esteemed member of Pivotal’s Expert Ecology network, his deep expertise in identifying bats from their calls has been invaluable.
Dr Webala is co-chair of Bat Conservation Africa, and a member of the Bat Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission. As an esteemed member of Pivotal’s Expert Ecology network, his deep expertise in identifying bats from their calls has been invaluable.
What led to your interest in chiropterology?
I have always been interested in wildlife. I started my studies focussed on primates. Then, after graduation, I volunteered in the Mammalogy Department of the National Museums of Kenya, where I had the opportunity to conduct hands-on training through many trips to the field, which included learning techniques on capturing small mammals, rodents, shrews and bats, for collection-based research purposes. It was around this time that I noticed there were no people studying bats, especially in Kenya, where no expertise existed. I decided to change that – and took a leap of faith to invest in and develop a neglected field.
How has it been to help build the field, and what have you found most fulfilling?
There are three things that I find particularly fulfilling:
- Busting myths about bats: bats are nocturnal, so they are generally mired in myths and misinformation and also have negative stigmas in many cultures. The Kenyan culture has many myths about bats – for example, if a bat visits you, it is said to be an omen of death. And if it doesn’t cause death, the person visited may be viewed by local people to be a witch and that they use bats for witchcraft. My own mother was one of those who believed in the many myths! So, I really wanted to get the truth about bats out there – to stop them being perceived as “spooky” animals or ghosts.
- International travel & networks: Studying bats has enabled me to travel extensively as an expert and collaborate with some of the best bat biologists from around the globe. I enjoy travelling and meeting people, building and broadening my networks.
- Leaving a legacy: I spend much of my time giving back now, building a legacy through training the next generation of students – very few people use acoustics in Africa, so I am dedicated to building that expertise across the continent. I am in the process of building a reference acoustic library with Kenyan bat sounds – called the Bats of Kenya call library – and want to continue to grow that to include calls for the whole of Africa. This is currently underway with colleagues from University College London.
“AI enables faster, non-invasive ways to study bats, and I think that is exciting. It will enable crucial advances in our understanding of ecosystems and biodiversity.”
How has chiropterology evolved over the years?
The use of technology has really changed the field a lot over the years. When I first started in the field, our only way to study bats was through capturing them at night. You had to become nocturnal too! Then, bat detectors started to become more commonly used as a non-invasive way to study bats. The next major evolution was the use of acoustics, and the creation of call libraries to use as source material for species identification.
And now, companies like Pivotal are making it much faster and easier to remotely identify bat calls by using machine learning models to sort through vast amounts of data for detection. That’s incredible. AI enables faster, non-invasive ways to study bats, and I think that is exciting. It will enable crucial advances in understanding ecosystems and biodiversity facing imminent threats from human activities.
However, multiple techniques are needed in chiropterology – while acoustics can help with the detection of most bats, there are some that cannot be recorded acoustically. For example, Pteropodids, or fruit bats, use night vision and smell instead of sound, and some species where identification requires seeing the size of the bat and taking morphometric measurements, including examining their teeth and skull features in the laboratory.
Can you share an example? What’s the hardest ID you’ve ever done that you are most proud of?
One of the most difficult IDs I’ve done was for the genus Myotis. There are 3 species in that genus in East Africa, and they are very hard to tell apart acoustically. You have to combine calls with in-person capture, as the species are differentiated primarily by size. The smallest is the Rufous Mouse-eared Bat (Myotis bocagii). Another example of a genus whose species cannot easily be separated with acoustics is Taphozous. I’m also proud of identifying endangered bats like Otomops harrisoni, which are found on the coast of Kenya.
Bat species identification can be quite challenging in Kenya due to the high levels of diversity. There are so many species, some of which are still to be recorded or found, or are even hiding in plain sight, waiting to be discovered! As an example, in the UK, there are less than 20 species of bats. In Kenya alone, there are thought to be more than 110 – about 90 of which can be recorded acoustically.
“I am very grateful to work with Pivotal and for the company’s role in helping me build my legacy.”
How has working with Pivotal enabled you to contribute to biodiversity research?
Pivotal recognises the expertise of wildlife ecologists like me, which is fantastic. The support from the Pivotal team over the years has been immense. They give me the freedom to work independently, remotely, from anywhere in the world, as I am often travelling or in the field. Flexibility is very important as it empowers experts like me to apply our skills in ways that best suit our diaries and needs.
Pivotal is also a great partner in advancing the use of acoustics in bat identification. While it’s not the only method as I’ve mentioned, it’s useful in the majority of cases, and most importantly, it increases the speed and ease in remote identification. Ultimately, we want to move our field forward by quickly, consistently and accurately identifying drivers of rarity and abundance of mammals in natural, and human-dominated, environments.
I am very grateful to work with Pivotal and for the company’s role in helping me build my legacy. I hope our joint work will advance investment in bats – human and financial investment – so bats get the recognition they deserve for their role in ecosystems and human well-being without being mired in myths, misinformation or facing persecution.
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