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. 

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.