Why are there so many bat species and how do they coexist?

Iroro Tanshi, PhD

Research

My research seeks to address two main questions


  • What are the drivers of biodiversity patterns across spatial scales?


  • What processes drive bat community assembly along natural and anthropogenic gradients?


Filling Gaps in Occurrence

I target hyperdiverse understudied undisturbed sites in the tropics to fill knowledge gaps in bat species occurrence and distribution.

Drivers of Diversity Patterns

What factors drives the patterns of biodiversity that we observe at a site, at regional scales and across biomes, under natural and anthropogenic conditions.

Community Assembly

I use functional traits to understand the mechanistic and stochastic processes that drive assembly of local communities from regional species pools

Science Infrastructure & Networks

Through supporting research infrastructure, networking and capacity strengthening, I’m deeply committed to advancing science in understudied areas such as West Africa.

Natural Hisotry Collections

Field Research Stations

Engaged Scholarship

I engage local people to protect the Endangered Short-tailed Roundleaf bat in Nigeria, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea; recognized by prestigious international awards, notably Pritzker, Whitley, and Future for Nature awards

Wildfire prevention

Cave Bat Protection

Conservation Education

Conservation Policy

Book Chapters

Frick, W., ..., I. Tanshi, ... (2023). Creating a culture of evidence use, pp 333-363, in Transforming Conservation. A Practical Guide to Evidence and Decision Making. Open Book Publishers, Cambridge, UK. https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0321.11


Tanshi, I., and T. Kingston. (2021). Introduction and implementation of harp traps signal a new era in bat research. Pp. 255–270, in 50 Years of Bat Research, Foundations and New Frontiers (B. K. Lim, M. B. Fenton, R. M. Brigham, et. al., eds.). Springer, Cham, xiii + 374 pp.


Mildenstein, T., Tanshi, I. and Racey, P. (2016). Direct Exploitation of bats for Bushmeat and Medicine. In Kingston, T and Voigt, M. (eds), Bats in the Anthropocene. Springer.

Natural History Collections

My research contributes to and mobilizes natural history collections archived at institutions around the world.

Functional traits

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Ecomorphology and functional traits in bats. I analog (calipers) and digital (3D imagery) techniques.

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Diet and new species

Through a combination of molecular techniques and cranio-dental traits, I study diet and describe species new to science.

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Over the last decade, I have contributed to, curated, and managed museum specimens in France, Nigeria, UK, and the USA

Collections and curation

Get in touch

Phone

(123) 456-7890

Email

itanshi(at)uw(dot)edu

Social

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