All in the family

One of the best things about my job is that I get to sometimes take the family along.  This is my son with a Bahamian Racer (Alsophis vudii).  What a lucky little dude.  He gets to catch all kinds of wildlife, travel to new countries, climb inside cool caves, and experience new cultures.

Gervais's Funnel-eared Bat, The Bahamas

One of the bats we were hoping to find was this little guy, Gervais's Funnel-eared Bat (Nyctiellus lepidus).  This bat is TINY.  Its body is about the size of your pinky finger! 

This bat eats insects and is found only in Cuba and a couple islands in the Bahamas.  We found it in only one of the caves that we searched, but we were glad that we found it at all.  We take small tissues samples from the bats we catch so that we can study their genetics.  It'll be important to examine the genetics of this species to determine how healthy the population is.

Buffy Flower Bat, Long Island, The Bahamas

Just got back from Long Island in The Bahamas.  We were there to survey the bats of the islands to see which species are doing well, and which ones might be in trouble.  

This is a picture of a Buffy Flower Bat (Erophylla sezekorni), which is very common in The Bahamas.  It also occurs in Cuba, Jamaica, and other parts of the Greater Antilles.  You can see from the picture that this bat has a pretty long snout, which is common for bats that feed on nectar.  The Buffy Flower Bat does feed on nectar, but it also feeds on fruits and insects too.  You can learn more about it on the Animal Diversity web site. 

Mammalogy Class

Part of my job as a curator at a museum that happens to be located on a university campus is to teach.  I happen to teach a course in the fall on mammals (Mammalogy).  This class is for graduate and undergraduate students here at the University of Florida.  However, today, I have the day off.  I have a great group of graduate students who work with me on the PhD research.  And, they are available to give guest lectures for me in my class. Today, one of my students, Angelo, is teaching my class about echolocation in mammals.  Its amazing how much similarity there is in the ways that different mammals have evolved the ability to echolocate.  In fact, some bats and whales even have a gene for hearing that is very similar through convergent evolution (two different organisms that have converged on the same type of amino acid sequence).  You can read about it here.  Thanks Angelo.

Capybara in the house

OK, well in my last post I was getting ready for a mundane meeting about parasites on humans, when I get a message that somebody is bringing in two young Capybaras and asks "do we want to get some tissue samples from them for genetic work?"  Well, I had to say yes.  Here is a pic of one of the little guys.  Capybaras grow up to be the world's largest rodent.  There is a population in north Florida that is thriving after an accidental introduction.  He was remarkably docile and cute as anything.  Anyway, Capybara wrangling was way better than a meeting in my office.  I love being a curator.

Preparing for Collecting in the Bahamas

Yikes, the first collecting trip of the year is coming up in two weeks.  Rather than starting a blog, I should be buying, packing, repacking, testing gear, etc.  However, I thought this process might be interesting to others.  So, here I am blogging about it.  I also thought that working as a curator at a natural history museum might also be something of interest to other folks.  So, that is what I'll cover here, the day-to-day business and interests of a curator.  Got a meeting coming up in 15 mins, so I gotta go prep for that.  Later.