Page 18 - Thola Issue 17

16 Mammal Department
ALL ABOUT THE BATS
I am extremely passionate
about bats; not only are they fascinating creatures,
but they provide us with valuable
ecosystem services. I thus
try to assist the Bat Interest Group
of KwaZulu-Natal (Bats KZN) with their education and outreach
programmes. Two such programmes are the annual ‘Introduction to Bats’ training day held at Shongweni Dam and the ‘Bats in Roofs’ workshop. The latter workshop is a one-day specialist course held every three years for the pest control industry
in KwaZulu-Natal. The organisation celebrated its 20th anniversary by hosting a gala dinner on 20 September. Special guest was Professor Peter Taylor, who presented his research group work on bats as pest control agents in macadamia orchards in the Limpopo province.
THE NEW GENERATION
My hands were full this year with mentoring four postgraduate students.
I continued to provide supervision to Tarin Ramsaroop and Sylvana Reddy, two Masters students based at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). I acquired two new students during the course of the year. Dale Abrahams was an Honours student based at Stellenbosch University and worked on chromosomal analyses
of southern African vesper bats. He completed his degree at the end of this year and is hoping to publish his findings. Zama Mwelase, my technical assistant, registered for her Honours degree on
a part-time basis with the University
of South Africa (UNISA). Her research project that I am supervising is focused on the ecological factors influencing the small mammal community composition within two municipal reserves – a welcome departure from the evolutionary studies that my research group is typically involved in.
OUT AND ABOUT IN THE FIELD
The year 2014 was our busiest year thus
ABOVE: Zama and Mpumi at the Bats in Roofs training course at the Museum. TOP LEFT: An Egyptian Free-tail Bat collected in Cradock. (Photo credit L.R. Richards). BELOW: A South African Vlei Rat – one of the small mammals collected at GGEP.
thola: VOLUME 17. 2014/15
far in terms of time spent in the field.
The mammal team visited 13 different sites scattered across KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape. Given the success we had with the volunteer field assistant programme launched in 2013, we decided to continue our work in two protected areas within the Municipality, namely
the Giba Gorge Environmental Precinct (GGEP) and Springside Nature Reserve. Both reserves harbour the Endangered KwaZulu-Natal Sandstone Sourveld Grassland. Very little is known about the small mammal communities associated with this particular habitat type.
We kicked off January 2014 by surveying the GGEP and recorded
five different small mammal species, including the Four-striped Grass Mouse (Rhabdomys pumilio). This diurnal rodent species is more commonly associated with higher-lying grassland habitats within KwaZulu-Natal, becoming less common towards the
coast. Based on Museum specimen records, striped mice have not been recorded in the eThekwini Municipal area within recent times. Displacement due to residential development was considered the basis of their absence from urban and suburban habitats within the Municipal area. The resident population at Giba Gorge is therefore of special biogeographic interest.
The volunteer team surveyed Springside Nature Reserve later in the year. This fairly small urban reserve is situated a mere two kilometres away from the GGEP. Despite the close proximity to GGEP and similarities
in habitat types, our survey showed that the small mammal community
of Springside was different to that
of GGEP. Five different species were collected, with only two species common to both reserves. Zama’s study will hopefully provide some insights into the factors contributing to these observed differences.
I was invited by the Eshowe Rotary Club in April 2014 to present a series of talks on bats to club members as well as other interested citizens. I was joined by Wendy White of Bats KZN, who assisted Zama and I with our bat surveys of the Dlinza Forest Reserve and Entumeni Nature Reserve. The bat fauna of both reserves were poorly known up until now. Our surveys yielded new species
Photo credit: L.R. Richards