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Just 11 percent
of scientific studies on Australian wildlife since 1901 have
looked at native bats and rodents, although they make up 45
percent of all species, says the study published in the Mammal
Review Journal.
Australia has already had some unique bat species become extinct
and there is a risk more could follow without anyone noticing,
said Trish Fleming, a wildlife biologist from Murdoch
University.
"Research funding goes on big animals which are iconic and
attract people's attention because they are cute and
charismatic," Fleming told Reuters. "It's very hard to make a
tourist attraction of a rodent."
Fleming's study focused on trends in Australia research,
analyzing 1,400 university and government funded research papers
since 1901.
Australia's unique and obscure marsupials and monotremes, such
as the spiky echidna and the duck-billed platypus, which are the
only egg-laying mammals in the world, attracted 77 percent of
research over the period.
While native bats and rodents have distant relatives on the
Asian continent, there is still an important need for studies
and conservation efforts for unique Australian species, said
Fleming.
"Microbats, for example, are really important in terms of
managing insect populations, but we know almost nothing about
them," she added.
(Reporting by Jarni Blakkarly; Editing by Byron Kaye and
Clarence Fernandez)
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