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(NewsNation) — An orange bat species is under threat due to the sale of stuffed and mounted specimens as home decor, researchers report.
The “near threatened” kerivoula picta, or painted woolly bat, species are being sold as jewelry, Halloween decorations and jarred curios, according to a study published in the European Journal of Wildlife Research.
Over 12 weeks in 2022, researchers with the International Union for Conservation of Nature Bat Trade Working Group found 856 listings for dead bat décor on Amazon, eBay and Etsy, including 215 for painted woolly bats. U.S. vendors accounted for 62% of these listings, per the study.
Tennessee led the sales of painted woolly bats, accounting for 45% of the listing, followed by Illinois, California and Florida, which together made up 27.5% of the listings.
“These bats are not from the United States, but they’re being sourced from across Asia and then brought here and used as décor. With this study, we hope to raise awareness and propel the conservation of this species,” said Nistara Randhawa, a co-leading author and University of California Davis data scientist and epidemiologist.
Known for their orange and black wings, painted woolly bats are not bred in captivity, meaning all the bats sold are taken from the wild. Researchers believe this trade is unsustainable due to the slow reproductive rate of painted woolly bats.
For the study, researchers used data mining and manual data collection to analyze and quantify the online bat trade on U.S.-based eBay, Etsy and Amazon websites during the 2022 Halloween and Christmas seasons.
Researchers are also concerned about the potential for bat trade to spread diseases to healthy bat populations and humans. The Center and Monitor filed a legal petition in May asking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect painted woolly bats under the Endangered Species Act.