The field season 2013 started with a bang! This May, I joined an international team of over 40 bat biologists in an expedition to Lamanai, Belize. The trip was led by Dr. Brock Fenton, a bat expert from the University of Western Ontario who has been visiting the site for over 20 years. Lamanai is impressive with biodiversity and archeological remains;  jaguar faces not only decorate the Mayan temples, but these animals can be seen around the area as well.

With a few dozen bat researchers in the group, projects were as diverse as the bats: morphology of wings, muscles, skulls and reproductive tracts, echolocation, feeding behavior, diet, flight aerodynamics, radio tracking, viruses, and more. We caught around 500 bats from 28 species, the great majority of which were released unharmed. The voucher specimens that were kept will serve as the basis of studies in labs across five institutions, which is an impressive use of field-collected specimens. These will continue to be available to researchers at the American Museum of Natural History’s Mammal Collection.

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