Assessing Human Disturbance Threats in Caves on Community Lands in Kenya
Keywords:
Bat conservation, cave ecosystems, human disturbance, Kenya.Abstract
Caves in Kenya provide critical habitats for diverse bat species, supporting roosting, breeding, and foraging activities essential for their survival. Despite their ecological importance, many caves, particularly those located on unprotected community lands, are increasingly exposed to human disturbance, which can compromise habitat quality and bat population viability. This study assessed the type and intensity of disturbance threats across twelve caves, nine of which are in community lands caves in Kenya, aiming to identify high-risk sites and inform conservation priorities. Observations were quantified using a standardized scoring protocol (0–3) across nine categories of threats, including tourism, vegetation removal, plastic waste, artificial lighting, construction, agriculture/livestock, guano mining, religious use, and firewood collection. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize per-cave and per-threat metrics, while heatmap visualization and cluster analysis revealed patterns of shared and unique disturbances among sites. Tourism, plastic waste, and vegetation removal emerged as the most prevalent threats, whereas guano mining and firewood collection were less frequent. Shimoni cave recorded the highest cumulative threat score, reflecting intense human pressures, while caves such as Makuruhu exhibited relatively low disturbance levels. These results highlight that caves in community lands are subject to diverse anthropogenic pressures that, if unmanaged, could undermine bat conservation. Conservation interventions should prioritize high-risk caves through targeted and cluster-based strategies to mitigate human impacts and preserve cave ecosystem integrity. Conservation interventions should prioritize high-risk caves through targeted and cluster-based strategies to mitigate human impacts, integrate cave protection into local biodiversity management plans, and preserve bat populations that depend on these fragile ecosystems.
References
Debata, S. (2021). Bats in a cave tourism and pilgrimage site in eastern India: conservation challenges. Oryx, 55(5), 684-691.
Frick, W. F., Kingston, T., & Flanders, J. (2020). A review of the major threats and challenges to global bat conservation. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1469(1), 5–25. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.14045
Furey, N. M., & Racey, P. A. (2016). Conservation ecology of cave bats. In C. C. Voigt & T. Kingston (Eds.), Bats in the Anthropocene: Conservation of bats in a changing world (pp. 463–500). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25220-9_15
Kenya Wildlife Service. (2021). Kenya Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan 2019–2030. Nairobi, Kenya: Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife.
Kingston, T. (2013). Response of bat diversity to forest disturbance in Southeast Asia: Insights from long-term research in Malaysia. In Bat evolution, ecology, and conservation (pp. 169–185). Springer.
Kunz, T. H., Braun de Torrez, E., Bauer, D., Lobova, T., & Fleming, T. H. (2011). Ecosystem services provided by bats. Annals of the New York academy of sciences, 1223(1), 1-38.
Medellín, R. A., Wiederholt, R., López-Hoffman, L., & Wilcox, C. (2020). Conservation relevance of bat caves for biodiversity and ecosystem services. Biological Conservation, 251, 108782. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108782
Nicolosi, G. (2023). Human pressures on cave ecosystems: Global trends and conservation priorities. Environmental Conservation, 50(2), 145–156. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0376892923000101
OpenStreetMap contributors. (2025). Planet dump retrieved from https://planet.osm.org. https://www.openstreetmap.org
Paksuz, S., & Özkan, B. (2019). Effects of cave tourism on bat populations in Turkey. Turkish Journal of Zoology, 43(3), 258–266. https://doi.org/10.3906/zoo-1809-21
Phelps, K., Jose, R., Labonite, M., & Kingston, T. (2018). Assemblage and species threshold responses to environmental and disturbance gradients shape bat diversity in disturbed cave landscapes. Diversity, 10(3), 55.
Phelps, K. L., & Kingston, T. (2018). Environmental and biological context modulates the physiological stress response of bats to human disturbance. Oecologia, 188(1), 41–52.
Pretorius, M., Markotter, W., & Keith, M. (2021). Assessing the extent of land-use change around important bat-inhabited caves. BMC Zoology, 6(1), 31.
Tataw, G. N. N., Maurice, M. E., Bumtu, K. P., Nkwatoh, A. F., Mbi, K. J., Agbornku, O. T. N., & Gufara, N. D. (2024). Leveraging local ecological knowledge for bat conservation: insights from a community-based study in the Ebo forest reserve, Littoral Region of Cameroon. J Agric Ecol Res Int, 25(5), 7-22.
Vasconcelos, S., Frick, W. F., & Bernard, E. (2021). Impacts of human disturbance on bats in caves: Conservation perspectives and priorities. Global Ecology and Conservation, 26, e01458. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2021.e01458
Villalobos-Chaves, D., Arias-Aguilar, A., Rodríguez-Herrera, B., & Siles, L. (2016). Human disturbance affects cave-roosting bats in a tropical dry forest in Costa Rica. Revista de Biología Tropical, 64(3), 1281–1294. https://doi.org/10.15517/rbt.v64i3.20769
Webala, P. W., Mwaura, J., Mware, J. M., Ndiritu, G. G., & Patterson, B. D. (2019). Effects of habitat fragmentation on the bats of Kakamega Forest, western Kenya. Journal of Tropical Ecology, 35(6), 260–269.