Abstract:
Identifying key wildlife resources is vital for lasting conservation efforts. Bats disperse seeds,
pollinate plants, consume insects, and support cave-dependent organisms. However, they face
significant threats from habitat loss, fragmentation, degradation, mining, cave tourism, cave
closures, evictions, and superstitious persecution. Most of Kenya's bat species roost in caves
outside the country's 10% of protected areas, where cave conditions and species remain largely
unknown. We employed the Scalable Bat Cave Vulnerability Index (BCVI-S) to assess the conservation priorities of bat cave roosts in Kenya, aiming to identify the most vulnerable ones and
establish priorities for effective conservation. BCVI-S has two components: (1) Biotic Potential
(BP), which evaluates cave's ecological value through bat species richness, abundance, and the
presence of threatened and endemic species, and (2) Biotic Vulnerability (BV),which measures
human disturbance. Bat assemblages in protected area caves was different than those on unprotected community lands, with Otomops harrisoni contributing to differences between these two
groups. Bat species diversity declined near urban areas. Caves with threatened species showed
moderate vulnerability, which demonstrates the importance of targeted conservation efforts.
Caves in protected areas showed greater Biotic Potential and lower vulnerability scores than those
on unprotected community lands. These findings justify the need to incorporate species-level data
and indicators of human intrusion in conserving cave-dwelling bats. The BCVI-S is a structured
tool for identifying those caves, which are vulnerable, leading to their preservation, planning,
empowering local management, and supporting evidence-based policy development.
