Ghana

Partners

Elias Akakpo

eaelinov15@gmail.com


Husein Bagulo

husayn2000@gmail.com

I monitor the fruit bat (Eidolon helvum) colony at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra - the largest fruit bat colony in Ghana. The bats roost in the neem (Azadirachta indica) and mahogany (Khaya senegalensis) trees in and around the hospital premises. These bats are under constant disturbance through the cutting down of roosting trees resulting in the gradual reduction of the colony size.

Locations

Accra

37 Military Hospital

The Eidolon colony at 37 Military Hospital has a long monitoring history, starting as early as in 2007/08. While colony peaks at this time comprised about 1 million individuals, peak numbers decreased to 100,000 in 2015, and to only slightly above 20,000 in 2020. In 2024, we were surprised by a high peak passing 100,000 bats!

Ada region

for Greater Accra region, no  specific data for Ada available on climate-data.org

Monitoring of 5 roost sites in the Ada region has been previously conducted by Hussein and Natalie in 2015 and 2016, in the course of an Environmental Impact Assessment. During this first period, we observed continued attempts of residents to drive the bats away (due to the noise they make, and fear of diseases), and several roost trees were cut. In 2020, two of the former roost sites seemed to be abandoned, and the remaining three harbor lower numbers of bat than they used to before. We hope to solve logistic challenges and continue monitoring in Ada at some point!

Garden's Club Hotel

Kasseh

Big Ada