Marrakech – An international scientific team has completed its first expedition across Morocco, surveying bat populations from the High Atlas Mountains to the Sahara Desert over two weeks, the Gibraltar government announced this week. The initiative, known as MaghreBats, is led by the Gibraltar National Museum in collaboration with Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakech.
The expedition brought together 10 specialist researchers from Gibraltar, Morocco, Spain and the United Kingdom. Their fieldwork spanned a range of landscapes, from high mountain terrain to desert, as the team worked to document species across the country.
Among the bats recorded were several of particular scientific interest. These included the western barbastelle (Barbastella barbastellus), the Maghrebian mouse-eared bat (Myotis punicus) and Gaisler’s long-eared bat (Plecotus gaisleri). According to the organizers, such findings point to significant potential for further discoveries in Morocco.
MaghreBats was founded and is directed by Stewart Finlayson of the Gibraltar National Museum. The project builds on more than a decade of bat research in Gibraltar through the Gib-Bats project.
Earlier studies had already traced bat movements between Gibraltar and other parts of the Iberian Peninsula, including Portugal, raising questions about possible links with North African populations.
Those cross-border questions sit at the center of the new work. “This expedition has been enormously exciting and has demonstrated just how much scientific potential exists in Morocco,” according to Finlayson, who added that bat populations in Morocco could carry consequences for populations in southern Iberia, including Gibraltar.
He noted that researchers cannot fully understand Gibraltar’s own bats without investigating conditions on the other side of the Strait.
The fieldwork came with difficulties. The team met difficult terrain, thunderstorms, hail and flooding in remote mountain regions, yet continued its investigations under the demanding conditions. Among the participants were two young Gibraltar National Museum trainees, Chantal and Stephanie Kassam, whose work drew particular attention from the project director.
“I am particularly proud of Chantal and Stephanie,” Finlayson remarked, noting that both kept pace with a demanding expedition and showed strong potential in the field. He expressed hope that it would be the first of many such expeditions for them.
Beyond species records, conservation forms a core part of the project. Under its scientific research licence from Morocco’s National Agency for Water and Forests (ANEF), based in Rabat, MaghreBats will advise Moroccan authorities on important bat habitats and sites that merit protection.
The work is carried out with Moroccan Project Co-Director Youssef Dbiba, and aims to establish a lasting research program, strengthen collaboration and develop young researchers.
“Our ambition is to build something that lasts,” Finlayson explained, framing the project as a long-term effort in scientific knowledge and conservation rather than a series of one-off expeditions.
A second MaghreBats expedition is already scheduled for late November and early December. The Minister for Heritage, the Environment and Relations with Morocco, John Cortes, welcomed the results, describing the Strait of Gibraltar as a link for wildlife as much as a barrier and praising the field experience gained by the two young Gibraltarians.
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