March 10, 2025
SINGAPORE – Lifeless bodies have been found around the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) campus – some of them with their little wings splayed out, while others were curled up.
These bats were grounded and unable to take flight.
Since August 2024, 45 bat groundings and deaths have been reported across NTU. Of these, 15 groundings and seven deaths were reported in 2025 between mid-January and mid-February.
The National Parks Board (NParks) said that while grounding events of various species of bats have been reported outside of NTU, there has not been any other location with a similar concentration of such incidents.
NTU environmental and wildlife student interest group EarthLink began rescuing these grounded bats in 2024.
Ms Karina Lim, EarthLink director at that time, said she and her team initially suspected that the bat groundings might be linked to pesticide fogging. But they quickly dismissed this possibility as checks found no fogging had been done in the area in the weeks they were consistently finding grounded bats.
As most groundings were reported around NTU’s Hall of Residence 9, they hypothesised that the nearby construction of the Jurong Region MRT line that could be causing distress to the bats or impacting their sonar capabilities. But the students cannot prove this.
Learning about EarthLink’s rescue efforts, first-year environmental and earth systems science undergraduate Emma Chao and Ms Nicole Dorville, a third-year PhD student from NTU’s Asian School of the Environment, came together to find out why the groundings seem to be more prevalent on campus.
“We are both really passionate about bats, so we naturally wanted to look out for those vulnerable to becoming grounded, as well as to better understand and possibly improve the situation,” said Ms Chao, 19.
With NParks’ support, NTU Grounded Bat Surveys, which was formed by Ms Chao and Ms Dorville, aims to also identify hot spots and threats to the nocturnal mammals. NParks has trained them to handle the animals safely.
The extra-curricular study started in January 2025 and now has 19 other contributors – undergraduates from the School of Biological Sciences, School of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, and Nanyang Business School, in addition to Ms Chao and Ms Dorville from the Asian School of the Environment.
It is the first study in Singapore on bat groundings.
Grounded bats are often less adept at launching into flight from the ground, possibly due to exhaustion or injury, or because they are young and inexperienced, said Ms Chao.
A fruit bat entangled in a mist net. PHOTO: ACRES/THE STRAITS TIMES
This puts them at risk of being crushed in corridors or pathways with high human footfall, or remaining grounded and eventually starving to death.
Wildlife research and rescue group Acres said that the bat groundings in NTU are especially concerning as they involve only the Javan pipistrelle (Pipistrellus javanicus), one of the 25 or so species of bats found in Singapore.
Also one of the smallest bat species in Singapore, the insect-eating Javan pipistrelle grows to the size of a human thumb, and commonly roosts on trees and building structures.
According to Nature In Singapore, an online journal of the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, Javan pipistrelles have also been sighted in buildings in Ayer Rajah Industrial Park, National University of Singapore, Paya Lebar MRT station and residential buildings in Punggol and Upper Thomson.
Ms Chao said that one possible reason behind the groundings could be over-reproduction.
“Groundings can sometimes happen naturally during the mating season, when mother bats over-reproduce and abandon pups because of insufficient resources,” she added.
Conserving the Javan pipistrelle is crucial for Singapore’s ecology, said Ms Lim, now a senior wildlife coordinator at Acres, which is not part of the NTU study.
For one thing, it plays an important role in the control and management of bugs – it eats mosquitoes and night-flying insects.
Ms Lim first learnt about the groundings from a community wildlife watchdog group on the Telegram messaging app in August 2022. Through EarthLink, she encouraged NTU students to report sightings of grounded bats, dead or living.
A Javan pipistrelle spotted during a survey by the team around halls of residence 8, 9, 10 and 11 in NTU. PHOTO: CONTRIBUTED/THE STRAITS TIMES
She and two other EarthLink members managed to save 37 bats between September 2022 and January 2023. This marked the start of a series of rescues by the interest group that is now continued and expanded by NTU Grounded Bat Surveys.
In addition to the Javan pipistrelles, groundings of other species of insect bats have been reported in Singapore – 176 reports in 2024 – with a seemingly higher concentration in Punggol, Yishun and Sembawang, according to Acres.
Commonly spotted species include the insect-eating whiskered myotis (Myotis muricola) and lesser Asiatic yellow house bat (Scotophilus kuhlii), and fruit-eating lesser dog-faced fruit bat (Cynopterus brachyotis).
“People usually request (that) the bats be removed, but that doesn’t solve the root of the issue as they have nowhere else to go. Development means greater habitat fragmentation, leaving bats in need of new spaces to live in,” Ms Lim said.
NParks noted that no bats in Singapore have been reported to have rabies.
Since 2011, the board has been actively monitoring the local bat population and has not detected any infectious zoonotic diseases from and among bats.
If anyone encounters a bat in their home, Acres advice is to turn off the lights and ceiling fans, and open windows as wide as possible to allow it to exit safely. If it fails to exit after a long time, report it with photographs and videos to Acres’ Wildlife Rescue Hotline on 9783-7782.
“What we need to do now is to learn to modify our environments, or best, learn to coexist with them,” Ms Lim said.