Of bats and legends!
Category: Bats | Date: Oct 29 2007 | By: admin
Hey all, I mentioned a legends in one of my posts. So here goes…….
The people on Pemba Island have many legends regarding bats, one of them is that some bats actually take on a human form at night and attack humans! This may be somehow related to the vampire bat urban legend!!!!
One such legend was covered by the BBC, which you can check out here. This bat is believed to attack people at night and has been blamed for assaulting women on the island. Of course these are just myths, but we believed them as we were growing up… some of us still believe in them.
Various links….that you may want to look at!
Category: Links | Date: Oct 29 2007 | By: admin
Below are some interesting links on some of the conservation efforts on the Island
Lubee Bat Conservation Programs
Kidike Pemba Flying Fox Association
Category: Bats | Date: Oct 29 2007 | By: admin
Well I promised to post some pictures of the Information Centre at the Kidike, which was the first to form an association. The pictures show the previous information centre built by the communities at Mjini Ole and the construction of the new information centre with support from the Department of Comercial Crops Fruits and Forestry and Fauna and Flora International. The community have been active in the conservation of the bat, its amazing!
The Kidike signpost
Old Interpretation board
The communities have to carry this home every evening!
New Information Centre under construction
We are now looking for someone who can help us with the interpretation material for the centre, perhaps someone can provide some assistance!
We want Kidike to be a model that can be replicated around the Island…..they have come so far!
How a Pemba Flying Fox is caught……
Category: Bats | Date: Oct 19 2007 | By: admin
Some of you are interested in how we caught the Pemba Flying Fox.Believe it or not, we used to catch the Pemba Flying Fox with a slingshot! You know like, David and Goliath….well am not proud of it now, but it was a part of my childhood. This was usually done by the children in the villages…..you can imagine how that could disturb a colony of bats peacefully resting…..sleeping probably! Also used were thorny bushes attached to sticks!
But one place we could never disturb the bats was a place where the communities buried their dead. Something like a graveyard which is full of indigeneous trees. This place was considered sacred and was not to be disturbed. The bats love this place and it is currently the largest roost site in the area. It is known as Kidike and its in a village known as Mjini Ole. The villagers of Mjini Ole came together and formed the first flying fox association known as Kidike Pemba Flying Fox Association.
The communities set up a basic information centre and invited tourists visiting the Island to view the bats and learn a little bit more about the bats and the Island. Tourists pay a nominal fee which is used put into a community development fund that is used for various community projects.
One example is, providing lighting at the local mosque and paying the electricity bills. Pemba is an Islamic society and religion is very important to us. We have assisted the association to improve the information centre and I will post some pictures of the centre in the next post.
Please note, another method of hunting was the use of shotguns. This appreared to have a higher and potentially non sustainable impact on populations as noted by two researchers known as Abigail Entwistle and Nadia Corp. This was however rarely done by the local populations but by visitors on the Island and military men from the military bases.
-
100% of your donation, minus a small bank fee, will go to your intended purpose.
Donations made here are safe.
-
Donations Received
- May 14th Andrew F. USD50.00
-
