The spatial distribution of bats in Burkina Faso is little-known. Previous studies have only described the bat species’ richness in Burkina Faso. This study
was conducted to highlight bat species’ richness distribution within Burkina
Faso and environmental variables that influence this distribution with the aim
to give support for protection and further sampling for biodiversity. The Species Distribution Models (SDMs) were used to perform this study. To do that,
species occurrences were collected throughout literature and field sampling and
correlated to environmental variables through the Maxent software (Maximum
Entropy). Our modeling variables included climate, vegetation cover, topography and hydrography data. The Jackknife test was performed to determine
the importance of environmental variables that influence the species distribution model. The results showed that bats are present in all areas of vegetation
in Burkina Faso. Species richness varies across the country. The species richness for major families increases from North to South. The total annual precipitation and topography are the main variables that positively influence bats
distribution in Burkina Faso but the bare ground cover and standard deviation of the maximum temperature negatively influence this distribution. This
modeling approach of bat species richness is important for policies makers
and represents an invaluable tool in ecological management, particularly in
the current context of climate change.

Bats, Distribution Species Model, Richness, Maxent