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.