COVID-19 and threats to bats

Abstract

Bats are very diverse, including over 1400 species (Simmons and Cirranello 2020), meaning that one in every five living mammal species is a bat. These remarkable animals include species living on every continent except Antarctica. Many of them perform essential ecosystem services including consuming large quantities of insects, dispersing seeds, and pollinating flowers of numerous tropical and subtropical plants including many of economic importance (e.g., durian in southeast Asia, agaves used to make tequila in North America; Kunz et al. 2011). Lamentably, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List (2020) identifies 77 species of bats as Endangered. Most bats are small mammals with low rates of reproduction (typically one or two young per year) and exceptionally long lifespans, with some individuals living over 40 years in the wild (Munshi-South and Wilkinson 2010).

Keywords

• covid-19
• bats