Bats in southeast Asia are proving to be an invaluable ally in human food security.
Christian Voigt, head of the Department of Evolutionary Ecology at Leibniz-IZW, has been studying bats his entire career, but the hunting behavior of one species has remained elusive.
That's why he and his team attached location trackers to wrinkle-lipped free-tailed bats in central Thailand, as Phys.org shared.
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Absolutely 💯 Over the course of years, they were able to see that these bats hunted at altitudes high enough to feed on especially destructive pests. These planthoppers cruise at high altitudes to avoid predators and are a scourge to rice farmers in the area. The results were nothing short of breathtaking.
"No vertebrate with a body weight of just 18 grams has ever been reported to have such a foraging range," Voigt told Phys.org. "Some bats traveled distances of more than [125 miles] from the cave on a single foraging trip and spent up to 11.5 hours in continuous flight in a single night."
Voigt went on to describe how the bats spent more than 50% of their time at altitudes of more than 150 meters and routinely reached 1,600 meters.
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Rice is the third-biggest crop in the world and feeds more than half the global population. Rice agriculture already faces challenges with flooding and dramatic temperature changes before taking pests into account. Having a better understanding of those pests and the natural predators that keep them at bay can secure the food supply for millions of people.
In order to do that, natural habitats need to be protected, and that means looking at more than just Thailand.
"The ecosystem services that Mops plicatus provide to the human population in Thailand and other regions of Southeast Asia extend far beyond local borders," co-author Sara Bumrungsri said, per Phys.org. "Their contribution to pest control has the potential to sustainably secure rice production in Asia."
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