David López-Bosch

Diré águila real, porque es lunes y necesitamos una alegría xd

A 2024 study found that ants best humans at tests of collective intelligence.

Learn more on #WorldAnimalDay: https://scim.ag/42nMvQJ

I believe there are only two types of marsupials: 1) fluffy, sleepy-faced, I-just-woke-up-from-siesta plushies; and 2) nervous, hyper-estimulated, sped-up, I-owe-money-to-the-local-mafia dudes.

The green ring-tailed possum is of the second kind 👀

The 1500th bat species, Pipistrellus etula, described from Bioko Island by my colleague @lauratorrent.bsky.social ! 🤩🫶🏼🦇

#pipistrellusetula

Yo me voy muy fuerte seguramente, pero diré canastera xd

Thanks for everything, Australia, the conference, the bats and the people, and see you all in Colombia in 2028! 🤗💚

After the conference, we even had the chance to venture into NE Australia: walking through the ancient Daintree Rainforest and mist-netting bats on the Sunshine Coast. All made even better with the company of an incredible group of bat people, into what is already becoming a post-IBRC tradition!

TRT Global - Australia refuses visa to African researchers for bat conference Organisers said the researchers were "recognized contributors" in the field and the move it could harm Australia’s reputation as a center for scientific exchange.

At the same time, it was frustrating and unfair that so many brilliant colleagues from the Global South could not attend due to visa and immigration barriers. Their absence was strongly felt... science should never be limited by borders or your place of origin...

trt.global/afrika-engli...

I always say that the Bat Community is among the most welcoming among different research groups (and I've met a few!). That's why going to these scientific conferences is like being with family, surrounded by kind and loving people! Always a delight! ❤️🦇

I presented the outputs from my thesis and the Bat Monitoring Programme (www.batmonitoring.org), focusing on bat roost conservation.It was a privilege to share this work, exchange ideas, and be inspired by researchers from across the globe, while also reconnecting with old colleagues and friends. 🤗

It is difficult to resume everything the last International Bat Research Conference in Cairns has been in a single post. But i'll try...

Back from my second International Bat Research Conference in Cairns, Australia 🦇🌏 @ibrc2025.bsky.social

Medellin, Colombia 2028!
#ibrc2028 #bats #batresearch

These Big, Meat-Eating Bats Also Have a Cuddly Side. Rare Videos Reveal 'Hugging,' Playing and Sharing Food Scientists observed a family of four spectral bats in their roost in a tree in Costa Rica, capturing an inside look at their social behavior

The "Big Bad Bat" of the Amazon, turns out to be a #familyguy after all 🫂
#huggerbat

www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/t...

Ant queen lays eggs that hatch into two species Bizarre discovery of interspecies cloning “almost impossible to believe,” biologists say

“Just when you think you’ve seen it all, social insects reveal another surprise.” https://scim.ag/47sVFyS

Love for bats 🫶🏼

📃 Our second article is now published on earth.org 🦇 Bats protect rice crops 🌾 in Spain, Madagascar & Mexico!!

🚨 But bats face threats & need our protection!

Read more 👉 bit.ly/3TMiC7U

#SustainableAg #Biodiversity #BatConservation #FoodSecurity

@uvic-ucc.cat
@udivulga.bsky.social

Abejaruco y... gorrión chillón?

Six days of wing membrane healing in a pipistrelle bat. 🦇

And that was my week. Sad for the camera but happy with the results! All of these are uploaded into www.batmonitoring.org to draw distribution maps, have population trends for bats in Catalonia etc... I dare you to find a cooler website about bats in the internet (check the species pages!) 😜

And I finished my week with another emergence recording census with a magnific landscape of the Catalan mountain! ⛰️

Sorry, here's the colony

The next day, I abandoned the drylands of Catalonia, and set up to the Pyrenees again to climb down to a colony of greater horseshoe bats. This one you must be extra careful, but luckily the colony breeds outside the vertical cave! 😜

And besides a good dinner, and interesting conversations, we could enjoy this impressive summer storm during the census (luckily it did not rain) 🌩️

And at night, we set our #IR recording equipment at a mine entrance with another volunteer found in the area, so we could teach him how to conduct the census by himself with the material we provided him! 👍

After that, I went south to the Lleida steppes, where there ara a lot of abandoned mines. As the mines were sampled during the colony emergence at dusk, I used the spare time during the day checking abandoned mining buildings for bat colonies, with no luck... 😑

Also, in a nearby greater mouse-eared bat roost, we found a little surprise! 👀

The next day, I visited a site in which a volunteer of the Bat Monitoring Programme (www.batmonitoring.org) is planning to adapt some abandoned water deposits as artificial roosts for cave-dwelling bat species. Let's see if he manages to accomplish this with our help! 💪

The next day, I only had time between meetings to visit a second hermitage site. This one also contained breeding greater horseshoes and Geoffroy's but, besides the sheer size of the colony, I got the amazing surprise to find some breeding Mediterranean horseshoes with their babies there! 😁

I finished the day, going to one of the largest breeding colonies of long-fingered bats in Catalonia! This colony is highly endangered because of tourism and climbing activity in the area. It is also where my camera decided to try bungee jumping, without much success... But the views are amazing 🤩