Painted Woolly Bats: Dying for Decor

In their native Southeast Asia, painted woolly bats often gather in pairs or small groups, roosting in tree hollows and on the underside of suspended bird nests, leaves, and eaves of buildings. Because of their vivid black and orange markings, however, they are frequently taken from the wild, killed, and sold online for decorative purposes. 

To provide a clearer picture of this trade, AWI funded a study of global online sales of painted woolly bats (Coleman et al., European Journal of Wildlife Research, 2024). The study authors searched for listings of these bats on Amazon, eBay, and Etsy over a 12-week period. They detected 856 unique listings for various species of bats, 86 percent of them on Etsy. Most were of mounted and framed bats, and fully one-quarter of them were for painted woolly bats. The United States was the primary location of both sellers and buyers.

The authors raised concerns about the unknown ecological impacts of the trade. They concluded that it is likely being conducted illegally, unethically, and unsustainably in the bats’ home countries, and may pose a biosecurity risk. Currently, although the species is classified as “near threatened” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, no protections exist for painted woolly bats in the United States and other importing countries, and they are not protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). AWI is working with the study authors to press for a CITES Appendix II listing for the species, which would trigger certain international trade protections.

Program Terms: Terrestrial Wildlife

AWI Quarterly Terms: Quick Read