There are more than 1400 known extant bat species distributed across almost all terrestrial habitats around the globe10,11. Many of these species occur in biodiversity hotspots that are threatened by both anthropogenic and natural threats6. Caves are key habitats for bats12 but are nonetheless threatened and in need of conservation; despite hosting high endemism, cave ecosystems receive little attention in terms of fund allocation for scientific studies and conservation compared to their surface counterparts such as agricultural and forest ecosystems11–14. Cave taxa are adapted to light-limited underground environments and most of them are dependent on mobile species such as bats to transport organic nutrients into these environments15,16. Bats are keystone species in karst ecosystems and ideal cave conservation surrogates, delivering vital energy sources into caves as they regularly forage from outside ecosystems. Cave ecosystems are critical for bats, with around half of all bat species reliant on caves, with a high rate of endemism and proportion of threatened species facing high risks from varying threats17. Nevertheless, conservation attention towards cave-dwelling bats remains limited compared to other mammalian taxa. Thus, there is an urgent need for better data to develop effective priorities for bats11.