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Zambia - Invasion of the Fruit Bats

December 26, 2020

Every November, as the fruit on the trees in Zambia’s Kasanka National Park ripens, millions of fruit bats turn the skies black. Locals and visitors say the world’s largest migration of mammals is a sight to be seen.

https://p.dw.com/p/3h0f6

This film looks at how fruit bats navigate hundreds of kilometers year after year, and what effect that has on their environment. We follow researchers Martin Wikelski and Dina Dechmann from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Radolfzell as they catch and equip fruit bats with transponders to track their movements. Yet the flying mammal’s habitat is under threat from illegal deforestation as poachers set fire to the forests to create more grazing land for antelopes and harvest charcoal to sell. The fruit bats’ habitat in the 400-square-kilometer Kasanka National Park, which is Zambia’s smallest, is shrinking fast. Locals also hunt the bats to make traditional medical preparations that can supposedly confer supernatural powers. The film accompanies park rangers as they visit villagers and farmers to explain the benefits the bats bring and stop at schools to see how children are being encouraged to protect the species.