Welcome to Merlin Tuttle’s Bat Conservation
Inspiring bat conservation worldwide.
Blog
Stay informed with MTBC’s latest updates, adventures, and Bat Flashes.
Counting Free-tailed Bats in Bridges
9/10/18 By Merlin Tuttle For many years we’ve wondered just how many Brazilian free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) could cram into […]
Response to Sensational Bat Rabies Stories
Every year around this time there is a spike in needlessly sensational rabies stories featuring exaggerations of truth. We always […]
Bat-Friendly Bridges Help Farmers
Merlin Tuttle 9/12/18 Building bat roosts into highway bridges in farmlands can benefit farmers at little or no cost to […]
Mosquito Eating in Bats
8/9/18 By Merlin Tuttle For decades, bat biologists have debated the extent to which bats prey on, and potentially reduce […]
Videos
Watch Merlin Tuttle’s latest videos and video archives for more information on bat conservation
Bats are organic pest control
Rainforests need bats!
Dr. Merlin Tuttle hand-feeding Hardwicke’s woolly bat
Merlin Tuttle shares bats with David Letterman
Resources
Exaggerated Disease Warnings
Merlin’s Opinion Letter, “Fear of Bats and its Consequences,” was published in the Journal of Bat Research and Conservation. This is a thoroughly documented report on how exaggerated disease claims against bats have harmed bats and efforts to conserve them over the past 47 years—something all who care about bats should know.
Read more →Essential Bat Values
Insect-eating bats save farmers approximately $23 billion in annual agricultural losses in the United States alone. Millions of free-tailed bats from Bracken Cave, Texas eat more than 100 tons of insects nightly, intercepting billions of migrant pests before they can lay eggs, a huge savings to farmers.
Read more →Issues Publication in Defense of Bats
Read Merlin’s article, Give Bats a Break, in the Spring 2017 edition of Issues in Science and Technology. This report is based on Merlin’s review of thousands of scientific papers and popular media stories. And it is the first to expose how sensational speculation is fostering bad science in a self-perpetuating cycle of misdirected public health funding that threatens the future of bats. This is an issue that we cannot ignore.
Read more →Fear of Bats and its Consequences
Merlin’s Opinion Letter, “Fear of Bats and its Consequences,” was published in the Journal of Bat Research and Conservation. This is a thoroughly documented report on how exaggerated disease claims against bats have harmed bats and efforts to conserve them over the past 47 years—something all who care about bats should know.
Read more →Photos
Browse and download Merlin Tuttle’s famous bat photography.
This is a rarely seen species that is widespread throughout much of Southeast Asia. In Thailand these bats roost in […]
View NowPainted Bat (Kerivoula picta) in flight.
This cave shelters the world’s largest remaining bat colony, some 10 – 20 million bats. They consume 100 to 200 […]
View NowBrazilian free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) emerging from Bracken Cave.
Black woolly bat (Kerivoula furva) capturing an oriental leafworm moth (Spodoptera litura) in Taiwan. This is one of Australasia’s most […]
View NowBlack woolly bat (Kerivoula furva)
An adult male Wahlberg’s epauletted fruit bat (Epomophorus wahlbergi) with his cheek pouches full of figs in Kenya. These bats […]
View NowWahlberg’s epauletted fruit bat (Epomophorus wahlbergi)
A Lesser long-nosed bat (Leptonycteris yerbabuenae) pollinating organ pipe cactus in the Sonoran Desert of northwestern Mexico.
View NowLesser long-nosed bat (Leptonycteris yerbabuenae)
An adult male Chapin’s free-tailed bat (Chaerephon chapini) in Zimbabwe, Africa. The crest is hidden beneath body fur except during […]
View NowChapin’s free-tailed bat (Chaerephon chapini)
