Greetings bat lovers,
This is my second foreign correspondence while I am doing research in Costa Rica (you can find my first blog post further back on this site). To refresh your memories, I am conducting acoustic surveys across Costa Rica using two Wildlife Acoustics SM4BAT Full-spectrum passive recorders to look into the impacts of land use on bat activity and species assemblage. My project is part of a larger NSF funded project led by Drs. Beck and Wasserman looking at the impacts of land-use on primates. My fellow interns are researching antibiotic resistance and hormone levels in primates (these guys get to follow monkeys around and collect fecal samples), water quality of streams entering/inside/leaving forest fragments, fig trees, air quality, and the social implications of eco-tourism. I am the bat lady. We arrived here January 2nd, and after about a week of gathering our equipment and setting up, we started data collection.
What have I learned in my first two weeks here?
1. The weather is the ruler of the quality of your data. Even though it is the ‘dry season’ here in the rainforest, it rains almost every day. Hopefully it will ease up soon because a lot of my recordings are static. Currently, we are at La Selva Biological Research Station. Fortunately, they have a list of over 70 confirmed bat species found in this reserve alone. I plan to compare the findings from the recordings to the list they have to see if we find anything interesting! I have not spent much time analyzing my data yet, as we spend most of our days in the field. While my data collects itself, I am a part of a team and I help the other members collect theirs.
2. Sleep and food are paramount. Field work is no joke and even though I work hard to get 8 hours of sleep a night, I always want more. Those of you comfy in your beds with no assigned time to wake up, I am jealous until mid-March. All of us have already lost weight and our pants are getting baggy even though we eat rice and beans almost every meal! I hope to be super fit by the time I get back to the US.
3. It is very important to get along with your teammates. We are going to be together for 10 weeks, every single day. I love my team and we are making amazing memories here in the jungle. I am excited to get to spend a few days off in Manuel Antonio, hanging out and laughing on the beach with a coconut in my hand! If we did not get along, this would be a very different experience.
4. I am very lucky to have such supportive friends, family, and colleagues. The constant encouragement from everyone makes being away from home very easy. That being said, this is a marathon, not a sprint! I have 8 weeks left and I know at some point all of us will need some TLC and a shoulder to cry on when we are just missing that comfort of home. But I love traveling and know I am fortunate to have such an amazing opportunity to conduct funded research in such a beautiful country on such awesome animals. We’ve done some really cool things: walked across Costa Rica’s second-longest bridge in Tirimbina, climbed a 46 meter high tower overlooking the forest canopy where I got to watch Howler monkeys and White-faced Capuchins flit through the trees just 50 feet away, gone on night hikes and seen Eyelash Vipers and Red-eyed tree frogs, and watched rivers double in depth overnight.
5. It’s all worth it for the bats! So far, I’ve seen Proboscis bats and Greater White-lined bats every day when I walk out of my cabin. I’m sure I will see more species as time goes on. But getting to see their little faces and watching them leave every night to feed is such a rewarding experience. Everyone I talk to is eager to learn all of the fun facts I can throw at them. Many people are surprised to find out not all bats are vampiric (actually less than 1% of the approximate 1200 species drink blood). Anything I can do to improve the understanding, empathy, and appreciation for these bats, I will!
In a couple of weeks the group and I will be leaving for Quepos/Manuel Antonio where we will be doing our research in the National Park and surrounding land. This is a neat tourist town where we will certainly encounter many people who may or may not be familiar with eco-tourism. While my research is going steadily and everyone I talk to is very, very interested in it, I have received disheartening news from the girl doing the social research. She is conducting surveys with as many people as she can, and she has found that many of her subjects have very negative views of bats. Hopefully I, you, and everyone who comes into contact with the Austin Bat Refuge can help change the stigma associated with bats over time to where they can be loved and appreciated for their insane evolutionary history, ecosystem services they provide, and their wonderful personalities.
As always, feel free to email me for any questions or comments (ahall6@stedwards.edu)
Tata for now

Wildlife Acoustics SM4BAT Full-spectrum passive recorders

My Gear – Wildlife Acoustics SM4BAT Full-spectrum passive recorders

Eyelash Viper

Eyelash Viper

 

Red-eyed tree frogs

Red-eyed tree frogs

Amy in the Canopy

Canopy Life


Lots of Central Texas bat activity on a chilly evening. Devil’s Sinkhole, Old Tunnel, and Huber really show up strongly because of their more isolated locations.  Still a strong flight from Congress, so our newly released bats have plenty of company.


This beautiful cave myotis (Myotis velifer) was hanging motionless in the same location for four days in the corner of Cait’s balcony. She was worried about him and was kind enough to contain him and have us check him out.  He turned out to be just fine! We fed and hydrated him for a few days and released him tonight. Thanks for caring Cait!

Austin bat presentations, education, outreach, talks, programs


These two girls were rescued from separate Houston apartment complexes back in June. They’ve been with us all summer and have just now recovered their strength.  The one on the left was not flying well just two weeks ago, but last week started sustaining flight and had the red “no-go” tag removed (actually red lip gloss on the ear). They’ll be so happy to be in the soft-release box; they can stay there until they find a great new home!

Austin bat presentations talks programs education outreach rescue rehabilitation evening bats

Austin bat presentations education talks programs outreach


Latest research shows that 3 out of 4 Mexican free-tailed bats found in Saver’s Thrift Store prefer the Halloween department over other parts of the store.  Even though bats have nothing to do with Halloween 😉 , they nonetheless provided holiday ambience as they hung decoratively up with the fake cobwebs up in the ceiling! The other was recovered from over the cash register area, so perhaps the last one was making sure they got paid for their advertising efforts!

They all were fine, just wondering why Savers keeps inviting them into the store and then freaking out about it. Humans!

Here are three of the four a few days later, ready to be released under Congress Avenue Bridge, as soon as F1 takes down the fences for their party at the bat-viewing area.
Austin bat presentations, talks, outreach, programs, education, Mexican free-tailed bat, Congress Avenue Bridge bats

While they were resting up for their release, an immature Texas rat snake curled up under the roof tarp to stay dry and bask.  He was within a few inches of one of the boys and would have had him for lunch but for the netting in between them. Watch out you valiant little bats!

Here’s the rat snake getting relocated a few miles down the creek.

Here they are finally getting released at Congress Avenue Bridge after their circuitous adventure!
Austin bat presentations, education, outreach, talks, programs, rescue, rehabilitation
Austin bat presentations, outreach, programs, education, talks


Great work Di! The first two talks were to veterinarians at the Convention Center, the last one for the Rotary Club on their riverboat cruise.  The boat cruise was really great! The city looked beautiful at night and the bats were translucent in the bridge lights!

Austin bat presentations. talks, programs, education, outreach

Austin bat presentations, talks, education, programs, outreach

Austin bat presentations, talks, outreach, programs, education

Austin bat presentation, talks, outreach, education, programs


A recent episode of Rick Steves Europe titled “Greece’s Peloponnese” included Epidavros, the Greek healing center where doctor-priests performed the work of Esclepios, the Greek god of medicine. This center served Greeks from ~400 BC to 426 AD.

When demonstrating the acoustics of the 12,000 seat amphitheater that entertained those who traveled there for healing, Steves gave a speech meant to sound as if delivered by an ancient Greek: “Friends, Greeks, wayfarers, in these times of discord, fear is rampant in our society.  I contend that the flip-side of fear is understanding, and those who travel reap great understanding by meeting people who hold OTHER truths to be self-evident and God-given.”

We love this about Rick Steves and we wish that we could travel more to experience the truths of other cultures.  We hope that one day we can do so, but in the meantime, we get to have travelers come to us as we staff the information table at the Congress Avenue Bridge Bat Viewing Area.  Thanks so much to all the intrepid travelers who took the time to write in our Bat Journal!

In the future we’ll make a point of asking more about THEIR lives. Much as we love to have them log their impressions of the Austin bats, we want them to share THEIR truths and gain some insight into the way THEY see the world!

Congress Avenue Bridge, Congress Bridge bats, Austin bat education, outreach, programs, presentations, talks

 


Our former neo-nate D-Day had his big night last night!  He and all his classmates joined the Congress bat colony, in plenty of time to integrate prior to their migration south in a few weeks to come. So thrilling to watch them go!

D-Day was found on June 6th as a newborn pup clinging to the top of the bridge with just his feet and tail sticking up under the railing.
Dianne rescued him and hand-raised him and his free-tailed classmates from little specks, so tonight was emotional, as the end of their captive upbringing and the beginning of their new life as part of the wild Congress Avenue Bridge colony! Go with the bat gods, with the wind, with your guts, little pups!

 

Danielle O’Neil’s great photo of D-Day at 3 weeks:

Congress Ave. Bridge Bats, bat rehabilitation, bat education, bat presentations, bat programs, bat educational outreach, Congress Avenue Bridge, Congress Ave Bridge Bats

austin bat presentations talks outreach education programs presentations Congress Avenue Bridge bats

Just to train them correctly, we waited until all the tourists left before releasing them from the top of the grassy slope of the bat viewing area ;). (It seems the Congress colony waited to emerge until the crowd of tuna boats, kayaks, LED lights, and red lights went away, before they emerged.) So our pups will learn from the best!  That means, of course, that our pup also did not cooperate with the paparazzi, so no videos or photos of the release! Good bats! This photo from the flight cage earlier in the season.

People from Poland, France, and Alaska all came to see the emergence last night!  We love having our information table at the bridge to help inform the tourists about the bats.

 


Love you little bat!  Go have a happy happy life!

Here’s a last look at you pre-release

You look so good up there! Look at all those quick darting moves! Are you showing us how happy you are to be wild and free?


Here’s our boy pre-release. We’ll miss his antics and amazing leaf dancing!

And here’s his final wave goodbye!  He is a fine young bat and we have every confidence he will live a long and happy life!