Bat Distribution Size or Shape as Determinant of Viral Richness in African Bats

Maganga, Gaël D.; Bourgarel, Mathieu; Vallo, Peter; Dallo, Thierno D.; Ngoagouni, Carine; Drexler, Jan Felix; Drosten, Christian; Nakouné, Emmanuel R.; Leroy, Eric M.; Morand, Serge

To test the impact of the fragmentation of the distribution area on viral richness in bats, we used the geographic range maps of each studied bat species provided by the 'IUCN Red List of Threatened Species' web site, one of the biggest databases available on mammalian distribution, based on international experts' knowledge. The maps were imported in a GIS using MapInfo professional V 5.5. We then drew polygons following species distribution to obtain area and perimeter measures for all drawn polygons. The shape of the geographic range was estimated using the ratio of the total perimeter to the total surface area following the approach used by Kauffman cited in Fortin et al. [38] . The higher the ratio, the greater is the fragmentation of the distribution (Figure 2 ). Comparative analyses of the determinants of viral richness