- 9 months ago
- #bats
- #coronavirus
- #animals
Now, more than ever, there's a greater need to study the benefits and threats posed by bats, especially in the Arabian peninsula, Dr Reza Khan, senior specialist at the Dubai Safari.
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#bats #coronavirus #animals
Read the full story: https://bit.ly/30RftIP
See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos
Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km
#bats #coronavirus #animals
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NewsTranscript
00:00Possibly the original virus for the COVID might have come from the bats to other animals to human
00:05beings. But it was our responsibility to stop it at the grassroots, which we failed.
00:19Hello and good day. Today we're very glad, we're very honored to have Dr. Reza Khan with us.
00:29He is a recognized wildlife specialist in the Gulf. He is currently a wildlife specialist,
00:39principal wildlife specialist at the Dubai Safari. I'm really interested to know your take on bats.
00:51You know, bats are known as vectors of all sorts of viral diseases, including MERS, SARS, Ebola,
01:00Merberg, and a host of others. And then of course the SARS-CoV-2, which is the virus responsible
01:06for COVID-19. There are proposals from people to do the nuclear option for bats. At the minimum,
01:14they're saying, if bats are so bad, why don't we just smoke them out of their caves or wherever
01:22they are? What are your thoughts about that? Thank you. You have asked me many questions
01:28regarding the bats. Let's just have a look at the bat world. We have bats are the only
01:37flying mammals that can virtually fly from any place to any other places, a long distance to
01:45short distance, or just take off immediately like the birds do, like the butterflies do,
01:51like other insects do. So they're purely flying creatures in mammalian groups. Among the mammals,
02:00there are about 1400 species of bats, and only rodents are more in number than the bats in the
02:07world. And bats are known to have evolved about 50 million years back. Homo sapiens are known to
02:14evolve about 300 years back. So bats are in the world many, many millions and million years before
02:22human beings existed in the world. We have landed into the domain of bats and other mammals,
02:30and we have created, as Homo sapiens, we have created our own niche. In the process, we have
02:38destroyed many ecosystems, some of which were harboring all the wild bats and other wild
02:44creatures, wild plants, and they have been cornered in many parts of the world. Bears
02:52are caring, and they are known as carriers of many diseases. But most of the time,
02:59we don't get infected from them, as we don't come in contact with them. A few diseases might
03:06jump from bat to intermediate animals, like cats or carnivores, or certain smaller herbivores,
03:16like squirrels and monkeys, and it can be transferred to human beings. So very few
03:22bats are directly responsible for transmitting diseases from their own species to human beings.
03:30People, those who handle bats, I doubt they have ever been infected with any virus from the bats,
03:37because they take the proper protocols, the system that a bat handler is supposed to follow,
03:44they did all that, and there is no incidence of being bat biting a human being and getting
03:51infected from it. So these are accidental, or when we are lacking in our systems of management
03:59for the agriculture, for animal wealth, for the human health, and the general ecosystem of a
04:05country, of an area, of a restricted forest, or a wildlife sanctuary. In other words, Dr. Khan,
04:12you're saying the idea of exterminating bats in their natural habitat is not a very good idea.
04:19Absolutely not. Just imagine in Austin, Texas, where a couple of million bats live in a breeze
04:27called something like, after the name of the MPs there, I have been there one time,
04:34they come out in the evening, a couple of million, and they go to Mexico border, they, each bat,
04:40each insect bat, a minimum of a couple of thousand insects it must be eating every night.
04:47That includes mosquitoes, and many species of moths, and nocturnal beetles, and bugs,
04:56which are active at night. So they are dependent on them. So they are feeding on them. They are
05:00cleaning our agricultural field of the pests, and we use less pesticides because of the
05:08bats. If you kill a bat population of one particular cave, you are not exterminating
05:15the whole population. You cannot do that. Nobody in the world can exterminate any particular
05:20species of bat, which occur in hundreds and thousands, or in hundred thousands. So one
05:28population, and it is not logical, because we do not know which particular species of bat is
05:35responsible for transmitting this disease. We should not be killing any species of bat, or
05:42we should not be burning any population of bat, whether in a cave or any other place,
05:46because it will outweigh the benefit that they are giving through accidental
05:54transfer of disease. Possibly the original virus for the COVID might have come from the bats to
06:00other animals, to human beings, but it was our responsibility to stop it at the grassroots,
06:08which we failed. It is a failure of human society that we could not stop the spread of this disease,
06:14or any other disease that is spreading from one particular population, or a very small group of
06:19people to the whole world, and it is taking the status of a pandemic. In the Middle East,
06:25there was the MERS, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, that erupted some years ago, and
06:33scientists, scientific teams from different parts of the world have traced the MERS in camels,
06:42and human beings. It killed something like 800, more than 800 people, and affected at least 2,000.
06:49MERS was traced to bats. How many species are there of bats in the Arabian Peninsula, and
06:56in the UAE, how many species are there that we know? Very little studies have been done
07:04on the bats in the Arabian Peninsula. In the last past 10, 15 years, scientists from the European
07:12continent, they have joined people in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, and UAE. They have done some
07:18work. Because these are nocturnal animals, and we don't see them, and it is difficult unless we
07:24catch them by netting, or we entice them to their sounds, we produce the sounds. So,
07:31it is difficult. It's not like birds, and butterflies, or mammals, which are diurnal,
07:37or we could see them by day, and which we could catch or trap in different ways.
07:41So, that is the reason usually bats are least studied in most parts of the world.
07:46But nowadays, because of these diseases that is being transferred by accident, or by other means
07:54to human beings, people are becoming conscious. As far as I know, in the Arabian Peninsula,
08:01the number of bats could be anywhere between 50 and 55. Detailed studies are done. Up to now,
08:0952 species have been found in the Arabian Peninsula. Bat numbers are an indicator whether
08:15an ecological environment is safe for plants to grow. But bats, butterflies, and some insects,
08:23they are the agents for pollinating natural plants, and some of the cultivated plants.
08:29So, they are very, very beneficial in a place. So, we need to do lots of study on them,
08:33and find out which bats could be carrying diseases, or which could in the future be
08:43dangerous for the people. So, if long-term studies are done, if monitoring is,
08:48regular monitoring is done, then we could forecast. We can tell, yes, this migratory
08:54bat population is passing through, you are from the Arabian Peninsula, this might be European
08:58people can tell us that these are the bat population from Central Asia or Europe are
09:02migrating through the UAE and Arabian Peninsula, they might be carrying the following diseases,
09:07so we need to be careful. So, we can advise the people then, please don't be in touch with the
09:13bats, avoid them, and if you are bound to touch them, like the scientists do, take the proper
09:18precautionary measures so that no accident takes place. In the UAE, Jack Ijugaz and his team
09:24and team have found just 90 species of bats in the UAE, but definitely there is going to be more
09:31species as we continue our studies or when government spends a lot of time and effort
09:38in studying these animals which could pose threat to human beings. So, I think that needs to be
09:46concerted effort by all sectors, so that we pay more attention to the bats and find out whether
09:54how good they are for us and whether they could be bad for some people at any time.
09:59Where have you seen bat populations in the UAE, where do they hide? Virtually, bats, most of the bats
10:07in Arabian Peninsula and UAE, they live in the caves in the mountains because that is the most
10:13secure place for them, where very rarely people go, except the honey collectors, people normally
10:19they don't go to the hills or some of them who collect firewood, like in Yemen and
10:25part of Saudi Arabia, maybe people are going collecting firewood, but it is usually the honey
10:31collectors they go. So, they lead a very safe life in mountainous caves. Also, in old fort, if there is
10:40a disused archaeological site, bats could be living there. So, they try to live in places where normally
10:46people don't go. Some species, like the small insect bat, they're very, very small, like in the
10:55evening if you are standing like in Jumeirah somewhere, just before the sundown, you might see a
11:01butterfly-like creature flying in front of you and passing you and you may not see them properly
11:06what it is. So, bat could be living in the cities also, like the especially insect bats. UAE has a fruit
11:12bat that lives usually in the mountain because they are frugivorous, they feed on the fruits.
11:18They do come down to the foothills, very rarely it has been sighted in the city limits.
11:24Fruit bats usually live completely in the mountain because most of the fruit trees and
11:29the orchards and agricultural fields producing fruits are located in the Hazar mountains in the
11:37UAE and other parts of Bombay. Hazar mountains would be in Ras Al Khaimah? Yes, we have a part
11:45in Dubai also, like Hatta. In Al Ain, you have Jabal Hadid. So, from Ras Al Khaimah up to Al Ain, all over
11:53you have this Hazar range of mountains, some parts in UAE and major parts in Sultanate of Bombay.
12:00Their population is too low, actually a very, very low population we have because we don't have
12:06so many fruit gardens and naturally growing fruits except two species of figs that grow in
12:12the mountain. There will be very few other species of plants in Hazar range of mountains
12:19on which fruit bats can depend on. Would you recommend then, Dr. Khan, that more studies
12:25should be done about the bat population in this region and what sort of benefits do they
12:33have? What diseases do they carry? What threats do they pose to people, for example?
12:40Yes, I think the basic studies is needed to identify first what species of bats we have.
12:47Then there should be continuous monitoring and study of their ecology and behavior
12:52in the wild and some in captivity like Sharjah Zoo can do, Dubai Safari, Al Ain Zoo and other
12:58zoos that we have. Some of them could be keeping them and do their studies
13:04in situ and in ex situ conditions so that government entities and members of the public
13:12are aware of whether a bat could be posing any danger or not at the current time or in future.
13:18Monitoring of the situation is very much needed for which a government possibly should encourage
13:25private universities or the universities and other research organizations we have in the
13:30EOE to be working with the bat species in the country and in the region. I will just request
13:36every member of the public that please don't be afraid of the bats. Bats are here. They are all
13:40the time here. We don't see them but they are doing a great job because every evening in Dubai
13:45Zoo, I lived inside the zoo. Every evening I'll be making a round and I'll see them flying over
13:51my head and in the cities sometimes people could be seeing them between the cracks of a building or
13:59where two walls are joined so it could be just half a centimeter through that it will be able to pass
14:06so they are so small in size and they could be living in the cracks and crevices in the
14:12cities and that every night they're destroying thousands of insects which would have otherwise
14:18created problem for us and it would have been a problem for this civic bodies like our Dubai
14:23municipality and other municipalities in the region. So we need to be patient with the bats and
14:28our people those are working in the health sector, environment sector, we need to be doing lots of
14:36work with the bats and popularize the bats, their benefits that they do and the little bit of harmful
14:43aspects that it might have because it might be carrying some virus and other diseases it can be
14:52it may not get infected itself but it may be working as a carrier so all those we could only
14:59determine by studying them in the field. So a study of bats is a necessity really for all the
15:06countries in the world. We need to do lots of studies and remove the misconception that is
15:12failing in the society about the bats. Can we say then that bats should people should be afraid of
15:17bats and they are our friends? Actually we should if somebody comes in contact with that they should
15:25never touch a bat their hand like they must not touch a snake when they see in the sea beach.
15:33So we should not be touching because we have most of us most of the members of the public we don't
15:38have any business with the wild animals. We enjoy their beauty, we love them, we take pictures of
15:45them, we don't touch them. This is the formula all people should be following unless we need like in
15:52zoos and captivating center in wildlife research center nobody should be touching any wild animal
15:58whether it is a small insect whether it is a bat or a huge quail. So we should not be touching them
16:06unless we are needed and we have a purpose and that will serve the society. Thank you very much
16:12Dr. Reza Khan the wildlife specialist, principal wildlife specialist at the Dubai Safari. Thank you.
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