Hello! I’m Piyathip Piyapan, a new EDGE fellow who studies the smallest bat of the world: Kitti’s Hog-nosed Bat or Bumblebee Bat (Craseonycteris thonglongyai). Now, I’m a PhD candidate of Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Prince of Songkla University, Thailand. The focus of my recent study is on “Roosting Ecology and Behaviour” of Bumblebee Bat.
My experience in Kitti’s Hog-nosed Bat started since eight-years ago when I was a research assistant of my friend who conducted MSc. thesis on foraging ecology in this bat species. Later, in 2004 I joined with him to carry out the survey to monitor distribution, population and conservation status of Bumblebee Bat in Thailand. And then when I began my PhD in 2006, I decided to continue the study of this interesting bat by focusing on the questions about which characters of roost sites and roost caves are the bat require and what they do while staying in the roost caves (Bumblebee Bat spend more than 90% of their lifetime in the roost caves).
I expect that the obtained information and knowledge from my research can be applied for conservation and management plan of Bumblebee Bat and their roost caves.
