How much difference can one person make? Bat Conservation International member Lois Blumenthal has almost single-handedly created a commitment to bat conservation throughout the Cayman Islands.
She even convinced inmates of the Cayman Islands Northward Prison to build bat houses that are now scattered strategically throughout the islands.
Blumenthal arrived on Grand Cayman, a British territory 480 miles (770 kilometers) south of Miami, in 1990, when her husband Jim retired. They packed up their two children, Janice and David (then 11 and 7), and turned their favorite vacation destination into their permanent home.
Her commitment to bats and BCI began a decade ago, about the time a local pest-control company's float in a popular parade featured “rats, roaches and bats.” She requested information about bats from BCI and, after learning how important bats are, launched her first public-education campaign.
“When I first began working to conserve bats [in the Cayman Islands],” she says, “they were all called 'rat-bats,' pest-control companies were poisoning them, and the Cayman Islands Health Department was erroneously advising that bats be killed because of 'disease.' Insect-eating bats were being blamed for fruit-bat crop damage, and colonies were routinely killed by farmers.”
Things have changed dramatically since Blumenthal began working for bats. Now islanders usually call her first if they have a bat problem. Pest-control agencies use humane exclusion methods with one-way valves that let bats leave but block their return, and bats are not excluded during the summer birthing season. Blumenthal has created a Bats Study Guide for the Cayman Islands and gotten bat-educational materials in all the island schools. Magazines and newspapers frequently portray bats in a positive light, and most residents now appreciate the ecological benefits of bats.
“BCI has been there for me at every turn since the very beginning,” says Blumenthal. “I am not a scientist, just an ordinary person, and yet I was encouraged and helped along at every step of the way. BCI sent my first slide show at no charge and provided a Global Grassroots Conservation Fund grant” that got educational materials into the hands of teachers throughout the Cayman Islands.
Now her biggest challenge is protecting habitat, especially in a small but critical region called the Lower Valley Forest. This forest is home to five rare bats, including the white-shouldered or fig-eating bat, which Cayman shares only with Cuba and Haiti. It had not been seen in Cayman since 1932, until biologist and BCI member Annie Band visited Blumenthal and found a colony somehow surviving in the Lower Valley Forest.
“This little bat is entirely dependent upon just a few patches of remaining ancient ficus forest - and this is imminently threatened by development,” says Blumenthal. “These bats are slow fliers that don't like to go out across cleared land. They don't fly high and fast like the free tails, so they are essentially marooned in their tiny remaining habitats.”
Other bats roost in the cave systems within the forest, which also provides a crucial food supply to migratory birds. But this rare ecosystem is likely to be subdivided and cleared for housing soon and, Blumenthal says, “my job now is to save the forest.”
To help protect Cayman Island bats or to contribute to the Global Grassroots Conservation Fund, please contact Nicole Daspit or (512) 327-9721
BCI members can get the complete story of Lois Blumenthal's remarkable successes and continuing challenges in the Cayman Islands in the Spring 2004 issue of BATS magazine.
