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Effective conservation and management of flying-foxes with Argos system

Dec 27, 2017

Flying-foxes (Pteropodidae) are large bats capable of long-distance flight. Effective conservation and management of flying-foxes are constrained by lack of knowledge of their ecology, especially of movement patterns over large spatial scales. Thanks to research studies, we know that flying foxes are able to fly over 100 km a day and migrate over 1,000 km seasonally as an average. Therefore, they’re one of the considerable vectors of the viral infectious diseases across nations. Under the situation, GOI* requested the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to initiate the Indonesia-Japan collaborative project at IPB for conducting ecological studies on flying foxes and their involvement in rabies-related and other viral infectious diseases. This project is a collaboration between Institut Pertanian Bogor (Bogor Agricultural University) and JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency).

Indonesian and Japanese researchers are going to conduct research on the relationship of flying foxes and the rabies and other viral infection by technical cooperation scheme. Through the Project, in addition, research capacity of Indonesian counterparts in the field of rabies-related and other viral infectious diseases derived from flying foxes aims to be strengthened. This project used the Argos satellite system. Satellite telemetry is widely used to track the movements of animals, it achieves to analyse the movement of flying foxes, data of climate, meteorology, topography, and changes of land use in and around the roosting site of flying foxes.

Scientific publications :

  • “Potential risk of viral transmission from flying foxes to domestic animals and humans on the southern coast of West Java, Indonesia” by Dr. Chaerul Basri /FKH IPB was accepted in The Journal of Veterinary Medical Science in 2017.
  • “Daytime behavior of Pteropus vampyrus in a natural transmission” by Ms. Yupadee Hengian / Nagoya University was accepted in The Journal of Veterinary Medical Science in 2017

* GOI plans to take appropriate actions in collaboration with all Indonesian Institutions and International organizations such as Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, World Health Organization (hereinafter referred to as “WHO”), etc.

JICA Press release

https://ipb.ac.id/page/research/