Surveying & Monitoring Roost Sites
This has been one of our long-term projects which is in its 6th year now. Each year we add more roost sites (caves, ruins, temples, trees, etc) to our database and start monitoring their population dynamics over the seasons. This project has given us insight into various aspects like roost size variations across seasons, mortality rate, migration pattern, breeding season for respective species, maternal colonies, interspecies huddling, species domination within a multi species colony, etc.
The following table provides some data points on the outcome of this project so far.
Species Mapped – 34
Caves Mapped – 71
Temples Mapped – 6
Ruins Mapped -22
States Covered – 6
Geographic area covered through our survey so far
The data gathered over a period of three-years through this project has helped us bring a cave near the town of Kumta in Karnataka under the supervision and control of the Karnataka Forest Department. This cave is being monitored on a regular basis to prevent hunting of Cave nectar bat (Eonycteris spelaea) by the local community.