Following coronavirus COVID-19 epidemic, global media and the Internet started mentioning bats as key actors in the spillover. This depiction often misinterprets scientific evidence about the relationship between bats and SARS-CoV-2, and may contribute to increase bat persecution worldwide if not accompanied by sufficiently clear explanations. Moreover, it is unclear whether people adjusted their information-searching behavior following this coverage.We analyzed Google and Wikipedia searches on bats and coronavirus across 20 countries in 8 languages, in January 2016 - April 2020. We i) inspected bat-related searches on Google before and after January 2020, ii) checked whether Google and Wikipedia searches on bats and coronavirus increased during the pandemic and iii) carried out causal impact analysis to assess how much the pandemic increased daily visit rates to Wikipedia pages on bats.Before 2020, searches about bats included neither viruses nor zoonoses, China, and bat consumption as a food. All these topics have become dominant since January 2020. Likewise, the number of searches about bats and coronavirus increased since January. Causal impact analysis indicated a mean 175% increase in the daily number of visits to the Wikipedia pages about bats, following the announcement of the first COVID-19 victim the 11th January 2020.Increased media coverage of COVID-19 and the potential role of bats as SARS-CoV-2 origin and spillover source seem to have massively amplified people interest towards this mammal group worldwide. Whether this might result in a stable attitude change towards bats, or affect emotions associated with their presence is unknown, yet research about this is urgently needed, as such dynamics are likely to have major implications for bat conservation.
COVID‐19, media coverage of bats and related Web searches: a turning point for bat conservation?
