(September 25, 2019) While often vilified, bats actually bring many irreplaceable benefits to their ecosystems. They benefit caves by providing valuable nutrients in their guano (which is an excellent fertilizer, and is sometimes also used for crops!); they feed on huge volumes of insects each night including agricultural pests and mosquitoes; many plants rely on bats for pollination and seed dispersal; bats serve as prey for falcons, hawks, owls and other predators; and study of their unique features, such as echol...

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(September 25, 2019) GPS tracking devices placed on hammer-headed bats in the Republic of the Congo have given scientists the first detailed look at the daily routines of these suspected Ebola virus reservoirs.  The GPS tracking is part of a collaborative study involving WCS' Health Program and the United States' National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), to learn whether environmental factors—such as the length of the rainy season or high temperatures during the dry season—a...

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(September 01, 2019) WCS colleagues advocated for wildlife at the 18th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP18) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in Geneva, with the Mongolia wildlife health team leading efforts to save Saiga, by working with the governments of Mongolia and the USA to have saiga listed in Appendix 1 during the CITES CoP18. Inclusion of saiga on Appendix I of CITES will help ensure that international commercial trade will not c...

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