Distribution of bat species in Western Asia: Occurrence records from the Western Asia Bat Research Network (WAB-Net) project
The Western Asia Bat Research Network (WAB-Net) project was created to strengthen research capacity and knowledge of the diversity and distribution of bat species in a little-studied region, as well as to collect data to characterise the diversity and prevalence of coronaviruses in diverse bat species. Over a four-year period (2018-2022), we documented 4,278 individual records for 41 bat species using a cross-sectional survey approach at 50 sites in seven Western Asian countries, specifically Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Jordan, Oman, Pakistan and Turkiye. At each site, we captured, on average, 90 individual bats (range: 9-131) over multiple consecutive nights and used standardised methods to collect demographic and morphological data from captured individuals. We additionally completed a systematic evaluation of environmental characterisation and human-bat interactions at all 50 sites. Here, we report individual occurrence records and site conditions from this multi-country, multi-year sampling effort.
Authors
- Mu’men Alrwashdeh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0090-5286)
- George Papov
- Zahran Al Abdulasalam (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2996-8205)
- Kendra L. Phelps (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3120-4802)
- Lela Urushadze (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9223-1361)
- Kevin J. Olival (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3211-1875)
- Nisreen Al-Hmoud
- Shahzad Ali (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4281-2659)
- Ketevan Sidamonidze
- Ioseb Natradze (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7582-7884)
- Luke Hamel
- Raşit Bilgin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4575-4485)
- Nijat Hasanov
- Astghik Ghazaryan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-2840-0019)
- Andrew Spalton
- Attaullah Attaullah
Institutions
- National Center for Disease Control and Public Health (GE)
- Princess Sumaya University for Technology (JO)
- Royal Scientific Society (JO)
- Ilia State University (GE)
- Yerevan State University (AM)
- Information and Communication Technology Authority (KE)
- Muscat College (OM)
- Ministry of Science and Education Republic of Azerbaijan (AZ)
- Institute of Zoology (KZ)
- Boğaziçi University (TR)
- EcoHealth Alliance (US)
- University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (PK)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Biodiversity Data Journal
- Published
- 2024-08-21
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3897/bdj.12.e132199
- Citations
- 3
- Primary Topic
- Bat Biology and Ecology Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.09
Funders
- U.S. Department of Defense
- Australian Government
- Ministry of Environment