Simple polygon richness maps
To map richness based on point-based data we downloaded data from a
number of sources (see supplemental data), this included the ACR bat
database (using the 2023 dataset), as well as additional datasets
(Hughes et al., 2017; Tanalgo et al., 2022). In addition, we downloaded
updates to the bat interactions database (May 2023) and data collected
since 2000 stored in the Arctos dataset, plus the updated bat records in
GBIF for 2021-2023 (shown in supplemental data). This data was then
cleaned to remove synonyms and correct spellings throughout. This
yielded a dataset with 38208 points for 343 species.
Minimum convex polygons were created for each species using the
“minimum bounding geometry” tool in ArcMap 10.8. We then trimmed this
by the outline of the African continent, then split these into a
geodatabase using the split by attributes tool using “species” as the
attribute. MCPs were then treated in two ways, the overall map of
unfiltered MCP richness was calculated in the same way as the IUCN
simple richness using the count overlapping polygons toolbox in ArcMap
to show how unfiltered maps of richness misrepresent range.