Mobilizing specimen data on bats and rodents from Zimbabwe

This is a checklist of specimens housed in the Wet collection of the Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe. The checklist provides a comprehensive list of bats, rodents, hare and shrews in the wet collection. The specimens are preserved in 70% alcohol and the alcohol is frequently topped up. The specimens were collected from 13 different countries in Africa i.e. Angola, Botswana, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe, between 1899-2012. Our main focus was predominately on bats because they have both advantages and disadvantages. They are important because they can act as a biological agent to control pests; however, they transmit deadly viruses to humans and livestock. They have been found to harbour 61 zoonotic diseases such as Ebola, Hendra and Rabies which can result in animal death. These viruses can be transmitted to livestock (including horses, cats, and dogs) then humans or they can be contracted directly from bats through scratches or bat bites, or bat fluids, and water that has been contaminated with bat body fluid. Dead bats are also a threat to human health as they also carry these viruses and transmit them through wounds and pricks. They can pose a serious health threat if found in buildings, because their guano harbours fungi that can cause Histoplasmosis, a lung disease. Although our data is not broad with regards to bat species found globally (estimated 1200 species) we do provide helpful baseline information that has been used by the University of Cape Town, University of Zimbabwe, CIRAD Zimbabwe, to mention a few institutions. Providing this checklist and baseline data could help improve visibility and access to our collection and it could improve future research on bat distribution and mapping out disease hotspots for disease prevalence in each country or in Africa as a continent.