IC Broadcasting’s Island Symbiosis – Listening to Taiwan discusses how Xifu Elementary School in Hualien teamed up with the community to construct an ecosystem for bats

When the Covid-19 pandemic started, many people thought that bats were the source of the Covid-19 virus, which tarnished the reputation of bats. However, during this time, the students and faculty of Xifu Elementary School in Guangfu Township, Hualien County, partnered with the local Green Hills Agricultural Development Association to welcome bats as their neighbors.

The story started in March 2017. At the time, the students of Xifu Elementary school and the school nurse Chang Su-Lien found a series of unexplained deaths of bats in campus. They did not ignore the problem and, instead, they became little Sherlock Holmes to find the bat killer. They sent the bodies of the bat to Hsu Zhao-Long, a researcher in the Bat Conservation Society of Taipei, for testing and found traces of the pesticide Carbofuran in the stomachs of the bat. He theorized that the bats most likely ate insects coated with the pesticide and were poisoned.

Xifu Elementary School then began designing environmental education courses based around bats in 2017. The goal of the courses is to introduce bats to students and protect the bats. On the other hand, they worked with the local Mafu tribe to promote eco-friendly farming. They not only constructed bat houses in the school, they also created a drawing book― Here are the bats ― with the community and parents. They hope to use education to change the perspectives of the village elders and transform Mafu into an ecological village. This episode takes the audience to Xifu Elementary School in Guangfu Township, Hualien County, to understand how the teachers and students are implementing the courses on bats and creating a bat-friendly environment.