School’s wildlife club on the lookout for sheath-tailed bats |22 August 2011

These bats are one of only two mammals endemic to the granitic Seychelles. Historical records indicate that they were widespread and abundant prior to the 1970s, but that the population underwent a severe decline during the mid to late 20th century.

It is not clear what caused the decline, but the main threats to the species are believed to include: habitat loss from the effects of introduced plant species and over development; disturbance as a result of human development and predation by barn owls (Tyto alba), introduced in Seychelles in 1949.

It also include food shortage as a result of a decline in insect availability through the use of pesticides and changes in climate change particularly during the breeding period as well as inbreeding given the low population numbers and limited mixing between individuals from different roosts.

For this reason the whole school has engaged in actions to conserve and help protect the critically endangered species.

Sometime ago some teachers noticed that their school is a foraging area for the Seychelles sheath- tailed bat. They have been able to notice these bats after a presentation was given on the mammal recently at the school.

During the first week of the August school holidays, Baie Lazare primary school teachers, together with their pupils in the St Francis Wildlife Club, set up a 3m x 3m nursery in their school ground.  The nursery will support the propagation of native tree species that support insects for bats to feed on. This project also involved the community, where residents provided trees from their home gardens as well as ornamental settings. This was directly contributed under the Small Grant Programme (SGP) /Global Environment Fund (GEF) “Endangered Species Project”. The project aims to reduce activities and behaviour which may threaten endangered species and their habitats. It is also helping to encourage more community members to be involved in activities to restore habitats.

The St Francis wildlife club members and school staff are fully behind the project after learning facts on Seychelles endangered species in a presentation.

In the presentation teachers became more aware on endangered species and habitats in a teacher’s guide format. This will help them use those materials for their teaching lessons and also to ensure that all teachers and school staff are familiar with the SGP project, and the role in carrying it out in their school and community.

The presentation forms part of Wildlife Clubs of Seychelles (WCS) SGP/Global Environment Fund project to engage more children, youths and other members of the communities in practical actions to help endangered species and other local biodiversity. It will help improve public awareness of habitats in their communities, understand the impacts of habitat destruction and benefits of restoration and conservation work.

Since the start of the school year in January WCS has been fully focused on carrying out the SGP project.

They have observed that the clubs are enthusiastic about it and are planning various activities. To ensure momentum, the WCS is focusing its efforts with some ten clubs that have come forward with ideas and action plans for doing endangered species activities in their school and community.

To ensure good communication with the clubs, the WCS coordinator Terence Vel said “we have provided all leaders with written information about the project and the funding support available to them for field trips, education/outreach and habitat restoration”.

He has been visiting schools to speak to the leaders and find out more from them what they are planning to do as part of the project.

A workshop was held on Praslin from April 29 - May 1 for school leaders.

The Environment Department is one of the WCS partners contributing technical advice and approval on this project especially when it comes to undertaking studies and conservation work on sensitive endangered species like the Seychelles sheath-tailed bat.
 
WCS is appealing to the community to give their maximum support to this project. By protecting the Seychelles sheath-tailed bat and its habitat, we are protecting other umbrella species thus providing a healthy environment for every Seychellois to live in harmony with nature.

Contributed by the Wildlife Clubs of Seychelles