Bats To The Rescue Reading Answers

Jan 23, 2023

Bats To The Rescue Reading Answers contains 13 questions that are to be answered in 20 minutes. IELTS topic- Bats To The Rescue Reading Answers deals with information about how bats were highly beneficial in Madagascar. Bats To The Rescue Reading Answers, contains two IELTS reading question types. They are writing the correct answer and identifying whether the statements can be inferred. Candidates need to skim through the passage for the best answer. They can also refer to IELTS Reading practice papers.

Check: Get 10 Free Sample Papers
Check: Register for IELTS Coaching - Join for Free Trial Class Now

Section 1

Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions

Bats To The Rescue Reading Answers

Bats to the rescue

How Madagascar’s bats are helping to save the rainforest

There are few places in the world where relations between agriculture and conservation are more strained. Madagascar’s forests are being converted to agricultural land at a rate of one percent every year. Much of this destruction is fuelled by the cultivation of the country’s main staple crop: rice. And a key reason for this destruction is that insect pests are destroying vast quantities of what is grown by local subsistence farmers, leading them to clear forest to create new paddy fields. The result is devastating habitat and biodiversity loss on the island, but not all species are suffering. In fact, some of the island’s insectivorous bats are currently thriving and this has important implications for farmers and conservationists alike.

Enter University of Cambridge zoologist Ricardo Rocha. He’s passionate about conservation, and bats. More specifically, he’s interested in how bats are responding to human activity and deforestation in particular. Rocha’s new study shows that several species of bats are giving Madagascar’s rice farmers a vital pest control service by feasting on plagues of insects. And this, he believes, can ease the financial pressure on farmers to turn forest into fields.

Bats comprise roughly one-fifth of all mammal species in Madagascar and thirty-six recorded bat species are native to the island, making it one of the most important regions for conservation of this animal group anywhere in the world.

Co-leading an international team of scientists, Rocha found that several species of indigenous bats are taking advantage of habitat modification to hunt insects swarming above the country’s rice fields. They include the Malagasy mouse-eared bat, Major’s long-fingered bat, the Malagasy white-bellied free-tailed bat and Peters’ wrinkle-lipped bat.

‘These winner species are providing a valuable free service to Madagascar as biological pest suppressors,’ says Rocha. ‘We found that six species of bat are preying on rice pests, including the paddy swarming caterpillar and grass webworm. The damage which these insects cause puts the island’s farmers under huge financial pressure and that encourages deforestation.’

The study, now published in the journal Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, set out to investigate the feeding activity of insectivorous bats in the farmland bordering the Ranomafana National Park in the southeast of the country.

Rocha and his team used state-of-the-art ultrasonic recorders to record over a thousand bat ‘feeling buzzes’ (echolocation sequences used by bats to target their prey) at 54 sites, in order to identify the favourite feeding spots of the bats. The next used DNA barcoding techniques to analyse droppings collected from bats at the different sites.

The recordings revealed that bat activity over rice fields was much higher than it was in continuous forest – seven times higher over rice fields which were on flat ground, and sixteen times higher over fields on the sides of hills – leaving no doubt that the animals are preferentially foraging in these man-made ecosystems. The researchers suggest that the bats favour these fields because lack of water and nutrient run-off make these crops more susceptible to insect pest infestations. DNA analysis showed that all six species of bat had fed on economically important insect pests. While the findings indicated that rice farming benefits most from the bats, the scientists also found indications that the bats were consuming pests of other crops, including the black twig borer (which infests coffee plants), the sugarcane cicada, the macadamia nut-borer, and the sober tabby (a pest of citrus fruits).

‘The effectiveness of bats as pest controllers has already been proven in the USA and Catalonia,’ said co-author James Kemp, from the University of Lisbon. ‘But our study is the first to show this happening in Madagascar, where the stakes for both farmers and conservationists are so high.’

Local people may have a further reason to be grateful to their bats. While the animal is often associated with spreading disease, Rocha and his team found evidence that Malagasy bats feed not just on crop pests but also on mosquitoes – carriers of malaria, Rift Valley fever virus and elephantiasis – as well as blackflies, which spread river blindness.

Rocha points out that the relationship is complicated. When food is scarce, bats become a crucial source of protein for local people. Even the children will hunt them. And as well as roosting in trees, the bats sometimes roost in buildings, but are not welcomed there because they make them unclean. At the same time, however, they are associated with sacred caves and the ancestors, so they can be viewed as beings between worlds, which makes them very significant in the culture of the people. And one potential problem is that while these bats are benefiting from farming, at the same time deforestation is reducing the places where they can roost, which could have long-term effects on their numbers. Rocha says, ‘With the right help, we hope that farmers can promote this mutually beneficial relationship by installing bat houses.’

Rocha and his colleagues believe that maximising bat populations can help to boost crop yields and promote sustainable livelihoods. The team is now calling for further research to quantify this contribution. ‘I’m very optimistic,’ says Rocha. ‘If we give nature a hand, we can speed up the process of regeneration.’

Section 2

Solution and Explanation

Questions 1-6

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?

In boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

Many Madagascan forests are being destroyed by attacks from insects.

Answer: False
Supporting Sentence: Much of this destruction is fuelled by the cultivation of the country’s main staple crop: rice.
Keywords: fuelled, by the cultivation
Keyword Location: Paragraph 1, lines 3-4
Explanation: The first paragraph states that at a rate of 1% per year, Madagascar's forests are being turned into agricultural land. Rice cultivation, which is the main staple crop in the nation, is a major contributor to this destruction. And a major contributing factor to this destruction is the fact that insect pests are decimating a significant portion of the food produced by the area's subsistence farmers, forcing them to clear forest to make room for new paddy fields. This implies that forests are being destroyed mainly by the cultivation of rice. The given statement does not correspond to the information in the first paragraph and therefore it is false.

Loss of habitat has badly affected insectivorous bats in Madagascar.

Answer: False
Supporting Sentence: In fact, some of the island’s insectivorous bats are currently thriving
Keywords: insectivorous bats, currently thriving
Keyword Location: Paragraph 1, line 7
Explanation: According to the first paragraph , not all species on the island are suffering as a result of the destruction of the forests, which has resulted in catastrophic habitat loss and biodiversity loss. In fact, some of the insectivorous bats on the island are currently thriving, which has significant implications for both farmers and environmentalists. This implies insectivorous bats are only thriving because of their devastating habitat. They do not affect them. The given statement contradicts and is therefore a false statement.

Ricardo Rocha has carried out studies of bats in different parts of the world.

Answer: Not given
Explanation: This statement has information that is never mentioned in the passage.

Habitat modification has resulted in indigenous bats in Madagascar becoming useful to farmers.

Answer: True
Supporting Sentence: Rocha found that several species of indigenous bats are taking advantage of habitat modification
Keywords: indigenous bats, advantage, habitat modification
Keyword Location: Paragraph 4, lines 1-2
Explanation: The given statement is true as it can correspond to the supporting sentence. The fourth paragraph states that Rocha discovered that several indigenous bat species are utilizing habitat modification to hunt insects swarming above the nation's rice fields. Rocha is a co-leader of an international team of scientists. This implies that habitat modification only made the life of indigenous bats better.

The Malagasy mouse-eared bat is more common than other indigenous bat species in Madagascar.

Answer: Not given
Explanation: This statement has information that is never mentioned in the passage.

Bats may feed on paddy swarming caterpillars and grass webworms.

Answer: True
Supporting Sentence: We found that six species of bat are preying on rice pests, including the paddy swarming caterpillar and grass webworm
Keywords: species of bat, preying on, rice pests, paddy swarming caterpillar, grass webworm
Keyword Location: Paragraph 5, lines 2-3
Explanation: The fifth paragraph states that a study revealed that bats feed on rice pests, that includes the paddy swarming caterpillar and grass webworm. This does mean that bats feed on paddy swarming caterpillars and grass webworms. Therefore the given statement is true.

Questions 7-13

Complete the table below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 7-13 on your answer sheet.

The study carried out by Rocha’s team

Aim

to investigate the feeding habits of bats in farmland near the Ranomafana National Park

Method

ultrasonic recording to identify favourite feeding spots
DNA analysis of bat 7 …………………

Findings

the bats

– were most active in rice fields located on hills
– ate pests of rice, 8 …………………, sugarcane, nuts and fruit
– prevent the spread of disease by eating 9 ………………… and blackflies

local attitudes to bats are mixed:

– they provide food rich in 10 …………………
– the buildings where they roost become 11 …………………
– they play an important role in local 12 …………………

Recommendation

farmers should provide special 13 ………………… to support the bat population

Question 7.

Answer: droppings
Supporting Sentence: The next used DNA barcoding techniques to analyse droppings collected from bats at the different sites.
Keywords: DNA barcoding techniques, analyse droppings, from bats
Keyword Location: Paragraph 7, lines 3-4
Explanation: The seventh paragraph states that DNA barcode technique is used to analyse bat droppings. So according to the sentence in the question, the word “droppings” is the right answer to be filled here.

Question 8.

Answer: coffee
Supporting Sentence :bats were consuming pests of other crops, including the black twig borer (which infests coffee plants), the sugarcane cicada, the macadamia nut-borer, and the sober tabby (a pest of citrus fruits).
Keywords: bats, consuming pests, other crops, black twig borer, infests coffee plants, sugarcane cicada
Keyword Location: Paragraph 8, last three lines
Explanation: The eighth paragraph states that although the research showed that rice farming benefited the most from the bats, the researchers also discovered something else. They found evidence that the bats were consuming pests of other crops, such as the sober tabby, the sugarcane cicada, and the black twig borer(which infests coffee plants). So according to the sentence in the question, the word “coffee” is the right answer to be filled here.

Question 9.

Answer: mosquitoes
Supporting Sentence: Rocha and his team found evidence that Malagasy bats feed not just on crop pests but also on mosquitoes – carriers of malaria
Keywords: bats feed, but also, mosquitoes
Keyword Location: Paragraph 10, lines 2-3
Explanation: According to the tenth paragraph, Bats also ate mosquitoes and prevented the spread of malaria. So according to the sentence in the question, the word “mosquitoes” is the right answer to be filled here.

Question 10.

Answer: protein
Supporting Sentence: When food is scarce, bats become a crucial source of protein for local people
Keywords: bats, crucial source, of protein
Keyword Location: Paragraph 11, line 1-2
Explanation: From the eleventh paragraph, it is clear that bats provide protein rich foods. So according to the sentence in the question, the word “protein” is the right answer to be filled here.

Question 11.

Answer: unclean
Supporting Sentence: the bats sometimes roost in buildings, but are not welcomed there because they make them unclean
Keywords: bats, roost in buildings, make them unclean
Keyword Location: Paragraph 11, lines 3-4
Explanation: The eleventh paragraph states that bats do roost in buildings and make them unclean. Therefore the word “unclean” is the right answer to be filled here.

Question 12.

Answer: culture
Supporting Sentence :which makes them very significant in the culture of the people
Keywords: significant, culture of the people
Keyword Location: Paragraph 11, lines 5-6
Explanation: From the eleventh paragraph it can be inferred that bats do create an impact in the local people’s culture. So according to the sentence in the question, the word “culture” is the right answer to be filled here.

Question 13.

Answer: houses
Supporting Sentence: we hope that farmers can promote this mutually beneficial relationship by installing bat houses.
Keywords: farmers, installing bat houses.
Keyword Location: Paragraph 11, last two lines
Explanation: The eleventh paragraph ends with a recommendation that requests farmers to build special houses for bats and increase their bond. So according to the sentence in the question, the word “houses” is the right answer to be filled here.

Read More IELTS Reading Related Samples