Bat conservation and zoonotic disease risk: a research agenda to prevent misguided persecution in the aftermath of COVID‐19
Ricardo Rocha, Sheema Abdul Aziz, Cara E. Brook, William Douglas de Carvalho, Rachael Cooper-Bohannon, Winifred F. Frick, Joe Chun‐Chia Huang, Tigga Kingston, Adrià López‐Baucells, Bea Maas, Fiona Mathews, Rodrigo A. Medellín, Kevin J. Olival, Alison J. Peel, Raina K. Plowright, Orly Razgour, Hugo Rebelo, Luísa Rodrigues, Stephen J. Rossiter, Danilo Russo, Tanja M. Straka, Emma C. Teeling, Timothy Treuer, Christian C. Voigt, Paul W. Webala
Abstract
COVID‐19 has spread around the globe, with massive impacts on global human health, national economies and conservation activities. In the timely editorial about conservation in the maelstrom of COVID‐19, Evans et al. (2020) urged the conservation community to collaborate with other relevant sectors of society in the search for solutions to the challenges posed by the current pandemic, as well as future zoonotic outbreaks. Considering the association of COVID‐19 with bats (Zhou et al., 2020), bat conservationists will undoubtedly be key actors in this dialogue, and thus an action plan on how best to adjust bat conservation to this new reality, alongside a transdisciplinary research agenda, are clear priorities.