Distribution and abundance of different bat species in the interior of Arabuko-Sokoke Forest and adjacent farmlands in Gede, Kilifi County, Kenya

Simon Musila1, Robert Syingi1, Aziza Zuhura1, Nathan Gichuki2, Esther Mwangi1, Lawrence Monda1

1 National Museums of Kenya, Box 40658, 00100, Nairobi, Kenya; 2 University of Nairobi - Chiromo, P. O. Box 30197, 00100, Nairobi, Kenya

Corresponding author(s): Simon Musila (surnbirds@gmail.com)Robert SyingiAziza Zuhura (azizazuhura@yahoo.com)Nathan Gichuki (ngichuki@uonbi.ac.ke)

Received {date}; Revised {date}; Accepted {date}; Published {date}

Citation: Combination of authors, year of data paper publication (in parentheses), Title, Journal Name, Volume, Issue number (in parentheses), and doi of the data paper.

Resource Citation

Musila S, Syingi R, Zuhura A, Gichuki N (2017): Distribution and abundance of different bat species in the interior of Arabuko-Sokoke Forest and adjacent farmlands in Gede, Kilifi County, Kenya. v1.2. National Museums of Kenya. Dataset/Occurrence. http://ipt.museums.or.ke/ipt/resource?r=bats_occurence_1&v=1.2

Abstract

We present data on the distribution and abundance of different bat species in the interior of Arabuko-Sokoke Forest (ASF) and human-modified habitats (farmlands) on the eastern part of this coastal forest in Gede, Kilifi County Kenya. Bats were sampled with ground level mist nets and opportunistically with hand nets from caves. Captured individuals were identified to species and count of each species recorded both in the forest interior and the farmland. This information provides a baseline information on the role of human-modified habitats, and remaining coastal forests in Kenya for conservation of bats. In addition, the informaion can be used for future detailed study on ecology of bats as well monitoring of population trends.

Keywords: Bats, Arabuko-Sokoke Forest, Coastal Forest, Farmlands, Gede, Observation, Occurrence, Observation

Project details

Project title: Factors influencing bat community structure and temporal activity patterns in Arabuko-Sokoke Forest and adjacent human-modified habitats, Gede-Malindi, Kenya
Personnel: Simon Musila
Funding: The project was funded by British Ecological Society (Ecologists in Africa (http://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/funding/ecologists-in-africa/) grant Number 4632-5670) and Kunming Institute of Zoology (http://english.kiz.cas.cn/). Bat Conservation International also provided 30 mist nets used in the survey. National Museums of Kenya allowed Simon Musila to undertake the project. We appreciate the guidance provided by Simon Kajengo as we worked at night in Gede villages and assistance in data collection by Aaron Musyoka.
Study area descriptions/descriptor: This study was undertaken in the interior of the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest (ASF) and adjacent farmlands on the eastern part of this forest. The forest is found in Gede, Malindi-Kenya, about 100 km north of Mombasa city at a latitude of 3° 20’ S and longitude 39° 50’ E. The ASF is the largest continuous coastal forest in eastern Africa, which consists of three rather distinct types of broadleaved forest (“mixed forest”, “Brachystegia forest” and “Cynometra forest”), and mostly human settlements and cultivated land around the forest, consisting of small farms here referred to as ‘farmlands’ with fruit trees (mostly mango Mangifera indica, cashew Anacardium occidentale, and coconut Cocos nucifera.
Design description: Bats were sampled using equal number of ground-level mist-nets (12m long by 2.5m wide, 16-mm mesh, four shelves, Ecotone, Poland) both in the forest interior and farmlands in each survey. To compile a comprehensive bats of the study areas we opportunistically surveyed bats directly from the caves with hand nets. A total of eight surveys were undertaken in the study area; March 2014 (pilot survey) and the rest actual surveys (November 2014 (short-rain season), February 2015 (dry season), June 2015 (long rain season), November 2015 (short rain season), February 2016 (dry season), June 2016 (long rain season) and November 2016 (long-rain season) corresponding to different seasons. Each sampling station was mist-netted once in a single night in each survey season. In each survey, the forest interior and the farmlands were sampled alternately for bats. Captured bats were kept singly in large cotton bags and released at each sampling site, after we recorded time of capture, species, sex, age, reproductive condition, body mass, and length of forearm. Vouchers were also collected for all species, preserved in 70% ethanol, and deposited with the Mammalogy Section of the National Museums of Kenya (NMK). Bats were identified using vouchers at Mammalogy Section lab NMK, as well as published manuals by Monadjem et al. 2010; Patterson and Webala, 2012 and Mammals of Africa Vol. 4 (Happold and Happold, 2013). Our field protocol followed guidelines recommended by the American Society of Mammalogists (Sikes and Gannon 2011). Data was aligned to the Darwin Core standards before publishing on Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) through the Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT) at National Museums of Kenya.

Data published through GBIF: http://ipt.museums.or.ke/ipt/resource?r=bats_occurence_1

Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: All bat individuals captured were identified to species level.
Taxonomic ranks
Family: Emballonuridae, Hipposideridae, Megadermatidae, Miniopteridae, Molossidae, Nycteridae, Pteropodidae, Rhinolophidae, Rhinonycteridae, Vespertilionidae

Spatial coverage

General spatial coverage: Latitude of 3° 20’ S, Longitude 39° 50’ E 

Arabuko-Sokoke Forest (ASF) and adjacent farmlands around Gede (especially Mtsangoni, Mida, Arabuko, Gede, Watamu and Msabaha villages), Kenya
Coordinates: 3°30'32.4''S and 3°11'49.2''S Latitude; 39°47'52.8''E and 40°0'28.8''E Longitude 

Temporal coverage: 2014 - 2016

Datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Darwin Core Archive Distribution and abundance of different bat species in the interior of Arabuko-Sokoke Forest and adjacent farmlands in Gede, Kilifi County, Kenya
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Darwin Core Archive format
Format version: 1.0
Distribution: http://ipt.museums.or.ke/ipt/archive.do?r=bats_occurence_1
Publication date of data: 2018-05-02
Language: English
Licences of use: Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) 4.0 License

Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2017-12-05
Hierarchy level: Dataset