Imran Razik discusses a sad but serendipitous event that happened during his observations of vampire bats in the Gamboa flight cage. When the mother of a 19-day old pup unexpectedly died, her 'best friend' adopted the orphan. She started lactating and succeeded in raising the baby, who survived through the end of the observations. While adoption in vampire bats has been documented before, what Imran was able to do was truly impressive. Because he had intensively observed the behavioral interactions of this colony for six hours a day over a period of four months, he was able to carefully document the social behavior of each individual. It turned out that the two adult females had had a close bond. BD (the one who eventually adopted the baby) groomed and fed Lilith (the one who died) more than any other bat in the colony; Lilith in turn groomed BD almost the same amount. Imran's results suggest that non-kin adoption can be motivated by a prior history of cooperative interactions. Also read Gerry Carter's excellent blog post on this subject. Razik I, Brown BKG, Page RA, Carter GG. 2021. Non-kin adoption in the common vampire bat. Royal Society Open Science. doi: 10.1098/rsos.201927. PDF
Mariana Muñoz-Romo discusses the massive literature review she conducted, synthesizing decades of research, identifying diverse glands and non‐glandular odor‐producing structures across the Order Chiroptera. Mariana's review unveils the extraordinary sexual dimorphism that has been observed in Chiroptera to date, identifying not only target body parts where sexually dimorphic traits are likely to be found, but also critical avenues for future investigation and discoveries: Muñoz-Romo M, Page RA, Kunz TH. 2021. Redefining the study of sexual dimorphism in bats: following the odour trail. Mammal Review. doi: 10.1111/mam.12232. PDF
Mariana Muñoz-Romo discusses recent discoveries documenting high levels of testosterone in male fringe-lipped bats that exhibit large forearm crusts. Large crusts and high testosterone levels are especially pronounced when females are in estrus, corroborating behavioral evidence that the forearm crust plays a critical role in reproduction: Muñoz-Romo M, Flores V, Ramoni-Perazzi P, Page RA. 2020. The crust of a male: does size matter when females are fertile? Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 74: 1-10. PDF
We were delighted to host Amy Koehler as our first Bat Lab Artist-in-Residence. Here, Amy discusses her career path and why art plays such an important role in science.
Patricia Jones discusses the secrets that can be discovered through the DNA found in poop in their new article: Jones PL, Divoll TJ, Dixon MM, Aparicio D, Cohen G, Mueller U, Ryan MJ, Page RA. 2020. Sensory ecology of the frog-eating bat, Trachops cirrhosus, from DNA metabarcoding and behavior. Behavioral Ecology. Illustration by Bat Lab Artist-in-Residence, Amy Koehler.
Inga Geipel discusses her new study on the predation risks associated with courtship movements. Illustration by Bat Lab Artist-in-Residence, Amy Koehler.
Do bats make rational decisions? Claire Hemingway discusses her experiments investigating how different bat species make foraging decisions, and how their choices are shaped by the presence of a competitive decoy.
Murciélagos: magníficos, fascinantes, y esenciales: Mariana Muñoz-Romo discusses the fascinating world of bats. She details the critical ecosystem services bats provide as seed disperses, pollinators and controllers of insect populations. And convinces us that instead of being afraid of bats, we should be fascinated by them and protect them.
Bats and zoonotic disease: Rachel Page talks about the spectacular diversity of bats, their extraordinary immune systems, and what their ability to harbor pathogens often without getting sick themselves means for the spread of zoonotic disease. The upshot? Bats are not to blame for covid-19. Humans are. Which gives us tremendous agency and hope in addressing the problems we've created through globalization, urbanization, wildlife trafficking and the destruction of natural habitats.
Bat Perfume: Mariana Muñoz-Romo explains her investigations into the biological significance of the odorous golden crust found on the forearms of reproductive male fringe-lipped bats, Trachops cirrhosus.
Are bats in the canopy eavesdropping on the mating signals of their prey? Amanda Savage investigates how gleaning bats find their prey at different heights in the forest, and whether they eavesdrop on katydid mating signals, not just near the forest floor, but high up into the canopy as well.
Bound by Blood: Simon Ripperger and Gerry Carter explain how the cooperative bonds vampire bats form in captivity persist upon release in the wild (Ripperger SP, Carter GG, Duda N, Koelpin A, Cassens B, Kapitza R, Josic D, Berrío-Martínez J, Page RA, Mayer F. 2019. Vampire bats that cooperate in the lab maintain their social networks in the wild. Current Biology. 10.1016/j.cub.2019.10.024. PDF)
When does noise serve as an informational cue? Inga Geipel investigates how bats use the sound of rain to time their emergence from the safety of the roost (Geipel I, Smeekes MJ, Halfwerk W, Page RA. 2019. Noise as an informational cue for decision-making: the sound of rain delays bat emergence. The Journal of Experimental Biology. jeb.192005. PDF)
Sexy city frogs: Wouter Halfwerk describes the mating preferences, and the risk of predation and parasitism, in city versus forest frogs (Halfwerk W, Blaas M, Kramer L, Hijner N, Trillo PA, Bernal XE, Page RA, Goutte S, Ryan MJ, Ellers J. 2019. Adaptive changes in sexual signaling in response to urbanization. Nature Ecology & Evolution. 3: 374-380. doi:10.1038/s41559-018-0751-8. PDF)
Mother-pup interactions: Jenna Kohles discusses fledging behavior in baby fruit-eating bats (Kohles JE, Page RA, Dechmann DKN, O'Mara MT (2018) Rapid behavioral changes during early development in Peters' tent-making bat (Uroderma bilobatum). PLoS ONE 13(10): e0205351. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0205351. PDF)
SMITHSONIAN Meet the Scientists: STRI Staff Scientist Rachel Page explains how she became a bat biologist.
For more stories on our work, see PAGE LAB Projects and Stories on the STRI webpage:
For more stories on our work, see PAGE LAB Projects and Stories on the STRI webpage:
