Guest guest Posted June 6, 2005 Report Share Posted June 6, 2005 ***************************Advertisement*************************** ***************************************************************** This message was forwarded to you by yitzeling. Comment from sender: This article is from The Star Online (http://thestar.com.my) URL: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/6/5/focus/11062983 & sec=focus ________________________ Sunday June 5, 2005 ‘Bat girl’ of the Krau Reserve <b>The concerns of conservation researchers in the rain forest of the Krau Wildlife Reserve in Pahang are so far removed from “Green Cities”, the focus of the United Nations World Environment Day today. But their efforts are equally important for the planet as a whole, as TEOH TEIK HOONG reports.</b> EVERY time Christine Fletcher walks into the forest at dusk, she looks out for Pascal, Trisha and Richard. She turns on a radio-tracking receiver and immediately locates Pascal, whose presence is indicated by a distinctive blip on the device. She keeps track of Pascal every five minutes after that, sometimes noticing that he has flown 300m or 400m from where she is standing. Pascal is just one of the bats, the only species of mammals that can fly, that Christine, 29, a PhD research student, has been tracking over the last few years. “The bats I am tracking have been fitted with a radio transmitter and each has a dedicated frequency to help me identify them,” says Christine, who is conducting her research under the Malaysian Bat Conservation Research Unit (MBCRU) at Krau Wildlife Reserve in Pahang. Locals and friends call her “Bat Girl” as, like the creatures she studies, she sleeps by day and works by night. When this petite East Malaysian lass is not tracking bats, she handles forestry issues at the Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) as a research officer. “It can be scary sometimes in the forest at night, especially since I am alone and there are wild animals like tigers and bears to look out for. My bats are my friends, and they keep me company,” she says. When out in the field, her daily routine starts at around 6.30pm when she makes her way into the forest with a parang and a radio transmitter. She first stops at Pascal's roost, a small groove on a tree trunk that, to the untrained eye, is not visible. ”I will wait here and check if Pascal comes out for the night. The moment he flies out, I keep track of him with my receiver until dawn when he returns to roost,” she says. To keep her awake during the 12-hour watch, she has a CD player that plays tracks of four minutes to alert her of the next check she has to do. In the four-minute intervals, she also manages to catch up on some reading with the aid of a small headlamp. “In 12 hours, I have managed to finish one Harry Potter book,” she says. The time mostly passes by uneventfully, but there are instances when she has been caught in a bind. “There was once when it rained and I was hiding under a tree stump. I was caught with a scorpion on the ground and a centipede crawling up my back!” Christine relates. But such inconveniences will not deter her from continuing to study Pascal and his kind. Bats, she says, are misconceived creatures. “They are so cute and cuddly. Bats are misconstrued as being nasty creatures of the night but in actual fact, they are harmless and they play an important role in pollinating our fruit trees, keeping the insect numbers down and dispersing seeds in the jungle,” she explains. In the evenings, Christine, with the help of a few orang asli, sets up traps – harp-trap and mist nets – to capture insectivorous (insect eating) bats. The harp-trap can be left overnight, she says. The bats caught will slide down into a pouch at the bottom of the trap. “We check the traps twice a day, once in the morning and once in the late evening. Newly captured bats will be tagged and a sample of their wing membrane will be taken for DNA tests.” Bats captured on the mist nets are removed immediately, however. “If not, they could die,” says Christine. Every time a bat is about to be released, Christine puts it close to her mouth and blows gently at it. “The bats get cold,” she explains. “I try to warm them up before releasing them by giving them a light rub and some warm air.” But the MBCRU's efforts in bat conservation may all be for nought as all 125 species of bats (of which half are in Krau Wildlife Reserve) are not protected. “It is sad. Pascal and his friends may be protected in Krau but what if they fly outside this area and get caught by someone? “The bats have no protection in the country. We hope something can be done to protect Pascal, Trisha, Richard and their friends in the jungle,” says Christine. <li> To find out more about bats and how to help the MBCRU, contact Christine Fletcher at <a href= " cdfletch " >cdfletch</a> <b>Related Stories:</b> <a href= " http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/6/5/focus/11060776 & sec=foc\ us " target=on_top>Huge but unseen role in agriculture</a> <a href= " http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/6/5/nation/11037057 & sec=na\ tion " target=on_top>Logging and hunting killing bats</a> <p> ________________________ Your one-stop information portal: The Star Online http://thestar.com.my http://biz.thestar.com.my http://classifieds.thestar.com.my http://cards.thestar.com.my http://search.thestar.com.my http://star-motoring.com http://star-space.com http://star-jobs.com http://star-ecentral.com http://star-techcentral.com 1995-2004 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd. All rights reserved. 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