ABC Team
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Dr Emma Stone
Director & Founder
ABC and the umbrella charity Conservation Research Africa (www.conservationresearchafrica.org) were founded by Dr Emma Stone. Emma is a Associate Professor leading the Bat Conservation Research Lab at the Milner Research Institute at the University of Bath. Emma is the Regional Chair for Central Africa on the Bat1K project which aims to sequence the genomes of all living bat species. Emma is also a member of the IUCN bat specialist committee, contributing to species red list assessments for African bats and a member of the Eurobats Working Committee for Bats and Lighting. Emma directs all our programmes, and has worked in Africa since 1998. Emma's research focus is applied conservation biology with a strong emphasis on evidence based conservation, in particular human-wildlife conflict management, and mitigating the impacts of global environmental change.
Emma led some of the first experimental studies on the impact of light pollution of wildlife. Emma has published important work on human-wildlife conflict including studies on managing bats in historic buildings – work that has influenced government policy on licensing protocols for endangered species. She has also made important contributions to the limited role of mitigation in conservation and she was invited to write the first review of the effects of lighting on bats. Emma has secured over £2.7 million in funding since 2005 (2465 citations, H-Index 18).
Read more about Emma's research here.
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Or listen to her podcast about bat conservation research here.
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Orcid ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3415-3967
Email: els201@bath.ac.uk
Professor Gareth Jones
Scientific Advisor
Gareth Jones is Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Bristol, U.K. Gareth received his BSc (Hons) from the University of London before completing a PhD on the behavioural ecology of birds at the University of Stirling, moving to Bristol as Royal Society University Research Fellow. Gareth is world renowned for his research on bats and bioacoustics. He has led research on the discovery of a new, abundant species of European bat, the first mammal species to be described from Britain in recent years; and was involved in the discovery of 3 further cryptic species of bat. Other achievements of note include: driving research on how cryptic species contribute to bat biodiversity worldwide; elucidating unusual social organisation (matrilineal structure and intra-lineage polygyny) in bats;
determining when echolocation is ineffective for bats, and elucidating how moths respond to echolocation calls of bats; pioneering methods for the acoustic identification of bats and the development of acoustic monitoring; research on potential adverse effects of street lighting on bats; using presence-only modelling to predict bat distributions and to predict responses under climate change scenarios; producing some of the first papers using molecular methods to identify insect prey eaten by bats and building capacity for bat research in China and India, leading to research on genes involved in vocalization and hearing in echolocation. Gareth has supervised over 40 PhD students to completion, many of whom are academics in universities throughout the world, and is author of more than 270 peer-reviewed articles. He is now primarily interested in conservation biology, and works on a wide variety of taxa.
Dr Kieran O'Malley
Research Manager
Kieran is a conservation ecologist with an interest in behavioural and spatial ecology, as well as applying research to provide practical conservation solutions. He completed his MRes project with African Bat Conservation the a BCRL project back in 2019 when he assessed the roosting requirements of Mauritian tomb bats in Lilongwe (O'Malley et al. 2020). Since then he went on to complete his PhD at the University of Sussex, where he developed novel approaches to monitor barbastelle bat colonies within woodlands, as well as their flight behaviour over roads.
Kieran joined ABC and BCRL in October 2024 at an exciting time when we have a range of ongoing projects assessing the impacts of urbanisation on bats, including lighting, disease and development of powerlines.
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Follow Kieran's research profile at ResearchGate.
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Ocrid ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4037-757X
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Esther started working for ABC five years ago when she moved to Lilongwe as a cleaner and cook so is our longest serving member of staff. During her time with ABC her affection for bats developed through working with the project, talking to research assistants and meeting volunteers. With the help of staff members, Esther started to become involved in the bat surveys and ABC work, learning on the job about conservation and science. Esther has learnt how to handle and process bats but is also great at fixing mist nets and harp traps.
Esther Chikapa
Trainee Research Assistant & Women in Stem Ambassador
She regularly goes out on roost visits and has a keen eye for finding bat roosts. Esther also enjoys the outreach work involved with roost work and is vital to the Teams human conflict mitigation efforts. She also enjoys visiting schools and children in the communities where she can share her experience with others and teach children about bats and their importance in ecosystems. She is passionate about empowering girls to involve themselves in the sciences. Esther is currently working with ABC on fulfilling her dream to go back to school to finish her education.
Selemani is a Malawian conservationist with a strong interest in biodiversity protection and ecosystem sustainability. He holds an Honours BSc in Biodiversity Conservation and Management from Mzuzu University, where he gained skills in ecological monitoring, wildlife management, and environmental protection. During his studies, he conducted two research projects on Elephant-vegetation interactions in Nyika National Park.
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Selemani joined African Bat Conservation in October 2025 as a Research Assistant, supporting research on bat ecology through field surveys, acoustic monitoring, and community engagement to raise awareness of bat conservation.
Selemani Mustaphar
Research Assistant
Before joining African Bat Conservation, Selemani worked with the Mangochi District Council as an intern in the Environmental Department Office, contributing to environmental awareness and restoration activities under Restore Africa and CARE Malawi. He later continued his internship with the Disaster Risk Management Office, assisting with environmental hazard identification and resilience-building initiatives.
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He is passionate about applying science-based approaches to conserve wildlife and promote sustainable coexistence between people and nature.
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Felix Tuff
PhD Student
I joined the Bat Conservation Research Lab at Bath University and African Bat Conservation in September 2024 as part of the GW4+ DTP. Working in collaboration with the University of Exeter I will investigate how habitat specialisation increases extinction risk of bats under global environmental change. I will apply ecological and genomic methods to determine the effects of land use modification and habitat degradation on populations of bats in Malawi.
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My interest in wildlife has been longstanding with a particular love of mammals, notably beaver and bats. Through consultancy work I was lucky enough to participate in a wide array of bat projects from trapping and tracking to tree inspections and acoustic monitoring. Alongside work, my involvement with research projects and bat groups opened my eyes to the vulnerability of bats and the endless unanswered questions. This motivated me to undertake an internship in Białowieża, Poland in 2022 where I assisted a study investigating the impact of bark beetle outbreaks on roost usage in bats.
For the PhD, I will be using the field and analytical skills I have developed over the years whilst advancing my understanding of genomic techniques to advance our understanding of bat extinction risks with the aim to input to conservation management plans
Kiera Hodges
UoB Placement Student
Kiera joined the BCRL and African Bat Conservation in October 2025 as part of her third year of my undergraduate degree in Biology at the University of Bath. She has always had a passion for working with animals, which has shaped both her academic choices and career aspirations. Over time, this passion has developed into a strong interest in understanding animal behaviour, ecology, and the challenges they face in a changing world, as well as a commitment to contributing to their conservation.
Her academic background is in behavioural ecology and field work and she has previously worked on projects in Portugal about micro arthropods. Kiera is particularly interested in how human disturbance and how urbanisation influence wildlife, while also having an interest in climate change and conservation. While working with African Bat Conservation, Kiera hopes to explore these themes further and build a strong foundation in bat ecology and conservation that will support her future research and ambition of contributing to biodiversity protection and human-wildlife coexistence.
Lewis Absalom
UoB Placement Student
I joined the Bat Conservation Research Lab and African Bat Conservation in July 2024 as a part of my undergraduate degree in Biology at the University of Bath, where I am entering my third year. My main areas of interest are conservation and behavioural ecology. Through my internship in the lab, I hope to broaden my knowledge in practical research techniques and improve my analytical skills which will help me throughout my future career.
Angelena Efstathiou
Alumni & Project Advisor
Angelena holds a BSc in Animal Conservation and Biodiversity (from University of Greenwich) and a MRes in Endangered Species and Recovery (from Nottingham Trent University). She carried out her BSc thesis on a mixed species troop of primates at ZSL London Zoo and her MRes thesis on white bellied free tailed bats in Lilongwe in 2017, with African Bat Conservation. She was awarded a research grant from Bat Conservation International to conduct her research on roost exclusions in Lilongwe to help inform conflict mitigation. Angelena is an experienced bat worker having been involved in many scientific research projects including radio tracking of several species in the UK.
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Angelena was the Research Manager at African Bat Conservation from 2019 to 2021 and then following her return to the UK, she was the Science Projects Manager at the Bat Conservation Trust where she managed two large scale acoustic monitoring citizen science projects. She has been involved in conservation projects in both the UK and Africa and has sat on committees for several conservation groups including being Chair of Nottinghamshire Bat Group. She holds several UK Protected Species Licences including Levels 1-4 for Bats.
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