DoE adds tech approach as local bat count commences

The Department of Environment is turning the spotlight on Cayman’s local bat population and is using a technological approach to track the number of the nocturnal animals locally.

It has designed a bat reporting app and is appealing to volunteers to download the app to assist in tallying the local bat population.

John Bothwell, DoE Manager, Legislation Implementation and Coordination Unit, in an emailed response to the Cayman Compass on the survey, stressed the importance of tracking local bat numbers.

“This survey is to tally and keep track of the improvement or deterioration of the Cayman Islands bat population. This is important because bats have a crucial role in the sustainability of our environment,” he said as he encouraged the public’s participation.

Bats serve important functions, he said, the main two being seed dispersal and, perhaps “more appreciated, mosquito control or insect management”, which is why a healthy population is needed.

He said back in December 2020, 60 bat houses were surveyed and a ‘population index’ of 6,603 bats was recorded.

“The major limitation of this survey is that it only represents one of the nine species of bats we have in the Cayman Islands, and our survey is only conducted at the identified bat houses around Grand Cayman,” he explained.

This, he said, is because those bats are much more accessible for counting than the bats spread out in the wild, in a variety of habitats, around Grand Cayman and the Sister Islands.

However, he said, it does give the DoE a way to reputably monitor the population of “these important insect-eating bats”.

Bothwell said the public can get involved by volunteering to visit sites and tally their results using the DoE app.

“They start by emailing [email protected]. We then provide them a pdf with instructions on where the publicly accessible bat houses are, how to download our bat reporting app, and how to count the bats as they fly out of their bat house. This way, all of the volunteers are set up to help us with this important job,” he said.