They Call Me Pest

Funding for ‘They Call Me Pest'

In October of 2015 The Mauritian government authorised the cull of 18,000 Mauritius Flying Fox (Pteropus Niger), a specie of bats endemic to our island. They claimed that the recent rise in their population was threatening the island’s fruit crops. The government estimated their numbers to be 90,000 although the conservationists at the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation estimated the numbers to be about 50,000.

In the approach of the litchi and mango season, every year around October, fruit farmers lobby the government for “crop security” and blame most of their fruit loss on bats.

In this documentary we shed some light on the subject...

• We talk to fruit farmers who want their fruit to be protected from bats.
• We talk to Mauritians who used to hunt bats as part of their heritage and consider them as a culinary delicacy.
• We discuss with scientists and conservationists to find out why this endemic specie is important for our ecosystem.

It is estimated that only 1% of indigenous forest is left on the Island. The Mauritius Flying Fox are some of the biggest eaters of endemic fruits, therefore play a big part in seed dispersal and pollination of rare endemic plants.

Aim of the documentary:
A lot of Mauritians view the fruit bat as a pest. This documentary's aim is to find a way to help mango and litchi tree owners protect their fruits against the bats but will also hopefully inform Mauritians, and the wider world about the importance of our endemic bat in our ecosystem.
Our goal is to show the documentary in public and private schools on the island, and also broadcast the documentary on the national channel (Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation).

What exactly do we need funds for?

We have already captured some amazing images but not enough for the documentary to be complete. As you could guess, filming interesting images of bats is tricky. They sleep during the day and hang at the top of very tall trees. What we really want to film is when they are active, which is at night. You need top quality equipment to capture images of a subject far away from the camera, and even better equipment when you have little to no light.

-Equipment
We will need to hire cameras and lenses. We also want to get drone images of bats flying and images of the Island’s unique wildlife in general from the air.
-Transport/fuel
For this project we will need to travel all around the island to film the diverse wildlife and interview different people.
-Editor
We need someone to edit the film. If you aren’t familiar with how filmmaking works, especially documentaries, then you wouldn’t know that to make a wildlife documentary you accumulate hours of footage that an editor has to go through, choose and cut.
-Animations
We would like to show the significant pollination contribution that bats have on the island. We think that the best way to explain that would be through an animation.
-Grading
Grading is the process of altering and enhancing the colour of a motion picture. We want to hire a professional so that we can make the documentary’s images as beautiful as real life.
-Music & Sound
Every movie needs music, we are working in collaboration with the famous Mauritian band ‘Grup Latanier’ for a soundtrack and will also need to hire some sound recording equipment for filming on location.

Now you know what the funds are needed for, if you want to see this film come true then share and make a donation ! :)