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Human Dimensions of Bats in the City

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Urban Bats

Part of the book series: Fascinating Life Sciences ((FLS))

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Abstract

Cities are characterised by low amounts of natural habitat, so their human populations, i.e. urbanites, are expected to be poorly connected to and knowledgeable about the natural world, despite high biodiversity levels being increasingly recorded in unconventional, urban habitats. Such disconnection may raise potential conservation issues for wildlife living in urban areas. Bats are common in cities around the world and so too, therefore, are interactions between bats and urbanites. Yet, the elusive habits and peculiar adaptations of bats make these mammals poorly known and even feared, often as a consequence of long-standing, negative cultural framing. Here, we review the available literature on the human dimensions of urban bats. We first present a potential theoretical framework for understanding the drivers of human-bat relationships and how it applies to the available literature on urban bats. Next, we present an array of potential real-life contexts in which human-bat interactions may occur in urban areas worldwide. Such interactions vary in their nature and context and include visits to zoos, rescue, volunteering, occasional encounters, and the installation of bat boxes. Finally, we present a focal case study investigating attitudes towards and knowledge of bats from a tropical city.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wildlife Research Unit, Dipartimento di Agraria, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Naples, Italy

    Leonardo Ancillotto & Danilo Russo

  2. Department of Biology, Queens College at the City University of New York, Flushing, NY, USA

    Joanna L. Coleman

  3. Centro Recupero Animali Selvatici WWF di Valpredina, Bergamo, Italy

    Anna Maria Gibellini

Authors
  1. Leonardo Ancillotto
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  2. Joanna L. Coleman
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  3. Anna Maria Gibellini
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  4. Danilo Russo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Leonardo Ancillotto .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Vaughan, ON, Canada

    Lauren Moretto

  2. Department of Biology, Queens College at the City University of New York, Flushing, NY, USA

    Joanna L. Coleman

  3. Department of Biology, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    Christina M. Davy

  4. Department of Biology, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

    M. Brock Fenton

  5. Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Midreshet Ben- Gurion, Israel

    Carmi Korine

  6. Department of Biology, Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, NS, Canada

    Krista J Patriquin

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Ancillotto, L., Coleman, J.L., Gibellini, A.M., Russo, D. (2022). Human Dimensions of Bats in the City. In: Moretto, L., Coleman, J.L., Davy, C.M., Fenton, M.B., Korine, C., Patriquin, K.J. (eds) Urban Bats. Fascinating Life Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13173-8_10

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