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May 23, 2020

Mercury Mirage

It is the first bat educational documentary based on circulated rumor about bat nest containing mercury inside in Iran

March 16, 2018

Fake story about bat and mercury in Iran

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By: Hossein Zohoori

Based on reports from the Persia bat team[1] and the cavers network[2]  during February and March 2018 some unknown people have advertised bat nests for sale mentioning that bat saliva contains mercury. They claim that bats are making the nests with their saliva and clay so it is possibly to find drops of pure mercury in the nests which can be used as a remedy for some diseases. Also they have made a fake video and produced photos of the “bat nests” which they have circulated via social network and cell phone apps. After these advertisements they were trying to sell the “bat nests” to naïve people at high prices. Some people have attacked caves for bat nests and also caught bats during hibernation.

After receiving these reports, the Persia Bat Team and the cavers network with local DOE[3] guards in the area (some cities in Azarbayejan-gharbi province such as: Khoy, Salmas, Bookan and Takab) have started to find best ways to prevent harm to bats.

Activities:

 

  • Monitoring and control

    • Cave protection

    • Offenders arrest

    • Collect bats from catchers

  • ​

  • We don’t know the number of bats killed

  • Changing peoples’ minds is difficult

  • We don’t have any idea how they could make that fake ”nest” with mercury in it

  • We are not sure about other areas and caves

 

[1] Persia bat team is the first Iranian bat team education and study

[2] Caver network is volunteer team from Iranian cavers for bat conservation 

[3] Department of Environment

[4] Weekly radio show about bats , wildlife and environmental education

[5] Iranian Student National Agency press

[6] Iranian cavers team

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