Abidjan’s iconic urban bat colony is in danger

Every day at dusk, the sky is covered with clouds of bats that fly and screech in the tens of thousands among the buildings of Abidjan’s business district.

This iconic twilight scene of the economic capital and main city of the Ivory Coast could disappear, because the urban colonies of these small flying mammals are threatened.

After sleeping all day clinging to the branches of the majestic trees that line the avenues of Le Plateau (Abidjan’s central business district), the bats take flight, sometimes with their young under their wings, in the direction of the National Park of the Banco, a protected primary forest about ten kilometers away, where they will forage overnight on insects, fruits and flowers, explains Magloire Niamien, a biologist and bat specialist from Abidjan.

Author of a doctoral thesis on these animals, Niamien estimated their population at one million individuals fifteen years ago. “It has drastically decreased,” he explains now. Possible causes of this loss include logging, uncontrolled urbanization, and poaching; without being able to quantify the number of survivors due to the lack of recent studies.

The Eidolon helvum, the most common bat species in this area of ​​Côte d’Ivoire, has now become an animal “near threatened” on the Red List of Species to be managed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, recalls Maglorie Niamien, professor-researcher at the University of Korhogo (in the north of Ivory Coast).

“Up to half the bat population would have migrated to other places,” says Professor Inza Koné, director of the Swiss Center for Scientific Research in Ivory Coast, another person who knows the problem in greater detail.

Conflicts with humans

The coexistence between the population and the bats is sometimes difficult: they are accused of making too much noise with their shrill cries, even in broad daylight; of disturbing passersby and of dirtying cars when defecating.

There have been petitions to demand action from the authorities, the trees are voluntarily cut down to remove them, says biologist Blaise Kadjo, a mammal specialist and professor at the Felix Houphouët-Boigny University in Abidjan.

People also fear zoonoses (diseases that are transmitted from animals to humans), because bats are known to harbor many pathogens, especially viruses.

“There was great fear during the Ebola epidemic in West Africa in 2014, and fears resurfaced with the coronavirus pandemic. But we have never recorded a public health problem with the Le Plateau bats. We tested in 2014 without finding any trace. Ebola, “explains Professor Kadjo.

Fear of disease doesn’t stop “bushmeat” enthusiasts from eating bats.

Sale for human consumption

Three smoked bats are sold for 2,500 CFA (less than 4 euros) at the Siporex market in Abidjan’s large popular Yopougon commune, which are then prepared by boiling them whole in a soup or sauce.

Bat hunting on the plateau is mostly done on weekends, when the area that is primarily home to offices or schools is empty and poachers can operate in peace.

Scientists urge authorities to act to protect bats.

Because, in addition to their millenary presence and their status as a symbol of the city, bats play an ecological role in the fertilization of many plants.

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“They eat a lot of fruit, swallow the seeds and then defecate them while they fly, thus allowing their dissemination,” explains Professor Koné. “They also eat flowers, spreading pollen from flower to flower,” like bees.

Thus, bats are one of the few animals capable of ensuring the reproduction of iroko, a tree sold worldwide to make luxury furniture and threatened by excessive logging in West Africa, Magloire Niamien emphasizes.

“Their role is crucial in maintaining the natural ecosystem,” says Blaise Kadjo, who, together with his colleagues, hopes to obtain public funds to continue studies on bats and increase public awareness of their ecological importance. (JEC)

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