General information: Our bat house project is in-line with biodiversity conservation principles. As we are already aware, biodiversity is lacking on the planet and thus, we are not asking for the environment to protect us, but instead, we now need to serve the planet. Our project compensates the lack of habitat for bats around Peak School. Trees are being cut down in the area and new buildings are unfortunately now made bat-free.
Educational purposes: The main educational goal of our project is to teach biodiversity conservation to the children. However, teachers are also able to use this project for educational objectives related to conservation as well. We have already provided children with several sessions on the research, wood-working process and various stages of the bat houses.
Communication patrimony: Our bat houses are smaller tester houses. The idea behind this is to see if biodiversity conservation solutions would be an additional benefit to other ESF schools and projects, such as a school community garden.
Please visit http://www.batcon.org/ for more benefits and factual information regarding bats.
CONCERNS
Building infrastructure - Our project does not affect the school’s infrastructure. The visual impact of the bat houses are very slim and streamlined, e.g. they are small boxes that take up very little space on the wall. The boxes’ are light in weight and the risk of falling is equal to zero. One potential issue might be bat droppings staining the white walls. This will need to be monitored in case it occurs and appropriate cleaning measures may need to be put in place. However, most of the droppings should fall directly into the soil beds below, providing rich fertilizer to the soil.
Animal rights - Our project fully supports the fact that bats are sentient animals and it follows related animal rights concerns. Bats’ ecology is respected according to the scientific research and knowledge available. The project will need to be monitored to ensure continuous care is taken. We need to provide the same care to bats like we do to pets we may have, however, it is understood that bats are wild animals and no direct services are expected from them.
Zoonoses - Here are the links offered by the HK gov on zoonoses’ updates:
http://www.hkva.org/zoonotic.asp
https://www.chp.gov.hk/en/static/24005.html
Few communication regarding zoonoses -
Nipah virus? It affects only fruit bats and not the small insect-eating bats, which is what we are targeting with our bat houses. This is not a concern for our project as the bat houses have been built to attract and fit a specific type of bat only.
Rabies? No case of rabies in Hong Kong for many years. Rabies bats are mentioned only in Australia, South America and Thailand.
PEAK SCHOOL BAT HOUSE HEALTH & SAFETY STRATEGIES
Passive strategy:
Normal school Health and Safety strategies apply to our project - don’t touch any wild animals and inform the staff involved of its presence, etc.
The bat houses are placed out the reach from our children, staff and community (6 metres high on a wall) and they are placed above a green space in order for droppings to be naturally composted in soil.
Active strategy:
Bat houses are regularly monitored to insure good comfort to bats and to our community.
These bat houses are testers and a biodiversity awareness session can be organised next year to speak to our community in the event that we succeed and can scale-up the project.
Educational purposes: The main educational goal of our project is to teach biodiversity conservation to the children. However, teachers are also able to use this project for educational objectives related to conservation as well. We have already provided children with several sessions on the research, wood-working process and various stages of the bat houses.
Communication patrimony: Our bat houses are smaller tester houses. The idea behind this is to see if biodiversity conservation solutions would be an additional benefit to other ESF schools and projects, such as a school community garden.
Please visit http://www.batcon.org/ for more benefits and factual information regarding bats.
CONCERNS
Building infrastructure - Our project does not affect the school’s infrastructure. The visual impact of the bat houses are very slim and streamlined, e.g. they are small boxes that take up very little space on the wall. The boxes’ are light in weight and the risk of falling is equal to zero. One potential issue might be bat droppings staining the white walls. This will need to be monitored in case it occurs and appropriate cleaning measures may need to be put in place. However, most of the droppings should fall directly into the soil beds below, providing rich fertilizer to the soil.
Animal rights - Our project fully supports the fact that bats are sentient animals and it follows related animal rights concerns. Bats’ ecology is respected according to the scientific research and knowledge available. The project will need to be monitored to ensure continuous care is taken. We need to provide the same care to bats like we do to pets we may have, however, it is understood that bats are wild animals and no direct services are expected from them.
Zoonoses - Here are the links offered by the HK gov on zoonoses’ updates:
http://www.hkva.org/zoonotic.asp
https://www.chp.gov.hk/en/static/24005.html
Few communication regarding zoonoses -
- Bats present an extremely low risk of zoonoses (zero cases so far in HK)
- Bats are much less of a concern than mosquitoes or even domestic pets for example
- Wild animals that are monitored are less dangerous than unmonitored wild animals
- Populations briefed on zoonoses are at less risk than those unaware (this is one of the educational targets of our project)
- Provide NGOs conservation links (http://www.batcon.org/) which are more valid than the official HK links
Nipah virus? It affects only fruit bats and not the small insect-eating bats, which is what we are targeting with our bat houses. This is not a concern for our project as the bat houses have been built to attract and fit a specific type of bat only.
Rabies? No case of rabies in Hong Kong for many years. Rabies bats are mentioned only in Australia, South America and Thailand.
PEAK SCHOOL BAT HOUSE HEALTH & SAFETY STRATEGIES
Passive strategy:
Normal school Health and Safety strategies apply to our project - don’t touch any wild animals and inform the staff involved of its presence, etc.
The bat houses are placed out the reach from our children, staff and community (6 metres high on a wall) and they are placed above a green space in order for droppings to be naturally composted in soil.
Active strategy:
Bat houses are regularly monitored to insure good comfort to bats and to our community.
These bat houses are testers and a biodiversity awareness session can be organised next year to speak to our community in the event that we succeed and can scale-up the project.