Chiroblog

Themes – Bats and Men

This topic on the exploitation of bat feces is the first post of the topic “Des chiroptères et des Hommes”. This series, proposed a very open theme voluntarily, is designed to accommodate all topics dealing with situations of encounter between humans and bats. Any contributions are welcome, whether in writing or in pictures. To publish to a topic, recommendations are as follows: the title of the article begins with the title of the series (here: Des chiroptères et des Hommes -) and the theme is also mentioBats and Menlitate research). It is also possible to participate in this topic by writing a comment.

Theme – The exploitation of bat droppings

Large colonies of bats are sources of significant production of feces. The floor of some cave is covered with a layer several feet of feces. This is the case in Thailand, where the film was shot (Cave (Tadarida plicata, a Ratchaburi – see below). Guano covering the floor of cave sheltering huge colonies of certain species (Tadarida plicata or Taphozous for example in Thailand) is exploited for its fertilizing values. Constituting a powerful fertilizer, because they contain a high content of nitrogen in various forms (ammoniaques, nitrites, nitrates), droppings of bats are often harvested and packaged before being sold wholesale or retail for fertilization of vegetable crops and ornamental. Another advantage of this natural fertilizer is that it contains many bacteria from the gut for some bats and one of whose remarkable properties is to produce an enzyme having the ability to degrade chitin, basic component of the exoskeleton of insects. These chitinases give the guano insecticidal and nematicidal natural interest to farmers. The exploitation of this natural fertilizer is a function of colony size and accessibility of the cave; some sites occur throughout the year and are operated in a quasi industrial employing several dozen people (the caves a Tadarida plicata Ratchaburi is a case in Thailand). Other sites, even more modest, represent a significant share of revenues of certain villages who exploit them and therefore they become the object of securities holdings granted to villagers by the government. The responsibility for these sites is therefore assigned to the villagers who manage access rights and development potential. Harvesting feces is little or no mechanized, and equipment is rather rudimentary. Working conditions in the stifling atmosphere and charged with ammonia vapor are particularly troublesome.