Why are there so many bat species and how do they coexist?
Iroro Tanshi, PhD
Research
My research seeks to address two main questions
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.
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
Peer reviewed Publications
Plowright R. et al… I. Tanshi… (2024). Ecological Countermeasures to Prevent Pathogen Spillover and subsequent pandemics. Nature Communications 15, 2577 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-46151-9
Clements et al., … I. Tanshi… (2024). The bii4africa dataset of faunal and floral population intactness
estimates across Africa’s major land uses. Scientific Data, 11:191 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02832-6.
records from a biodiversity hotspot. Acta Chiropterologica, 23(2), 313-343.
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
Ecomorphology and functional traits in bats. I analog (calipers) and digital (3D imagery) techniques.
Diet and new species
Through a combination of molecular techniques and cranio-dental traits, I study diet and describe species new to science.
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
itanshi(at)uw(dot)edu
Social