Capturing community behavior towards fruit bats conservation in South Sulawesi

Fruit bats have important roles in the ecosystem serving not only as pollinator agents for various high economic values plants but also acting as seed disperser for many plants in the forests. Ecosystem services provided by the bats are still overlooked while the animals also experienced intensive hunting. Lack of knowledge on the importance of the fruit bats in the ecological chain combined with poor public perception of the animals have contributed to the decline of the bats. This research is aimed to examine knowledge, experiences, perceptions, and awareness of community on fruit bats and analyze the relationship of the four aspects towards the conservation behavior of community towards fruit bats in three different regencies of South Sulawesi (Maros, Sinjai and Soppeng). In-depth interviews using questionnaires to community living nearby the roosting habitats of fruit bats were carried out to collect data on knowledge, experience, perception, awareness and conservation behavior. Correlation analysis of Spearman rank was employed to determine the relationships between variables measured with the conservation behavior of community towards fruit bats. The results showed that on total of 90 respondents interviewed in the three regencies, there were differences on the level of knowledge, experience, perception, awareness, and behavior. It was found that Maros had the highest percentage related with conservation behaviour (78%) followed by Soppeng (76%) while Sinjai had the lowest (64%). Meanwhile, the analysis between all variables towards the conservation behavior had also shown that there were differences between variables tested on conservation behavior occurred in the three regencies. In Maros, better knowledge had positive influenced towards conservation behavior while in Sinjai low level of awareness had driven the behavior. In contrary, for Soppeng none of variables can be found influencing the variables tested and this can be due to the existence of local regulation and cultural norms which were enacted by the local government of Soppeng Regency on fruit bat’s protection.