MTBC’s Bat Adventures: Panama-Week 1
Merlin and Daniel Hargreaves, co-founder of Trinibats, have teamed up to co-lead two weeks of bat workshops at the Cocobolo Nature Reserve in Panama. The reserve is over 1,000 acres located about halfway between the Pacific and the Caribbean on the narrow Isthmus of Panama, about 35 miles wide. MTBC’s Panama Bat Workshop Week 1 Jonathan Duward, Fiona […]
Major Addresses Reach Leadership Audiences from Brazil to Chile
While the public continues to be pummeled with scary claims of dire threats of disease from bats, Merlin has been rallying crucial leadership collaboration from within the international research community. In September, he provided an hour lecture, followed by an enthusiastic hour-long discussion, for virologists and epidemiologists at Brazil’s Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Rio de […]
“Bat Girl” Alexis Hitting It Big for Bats
We first met Alexis Valentine and her mother Amy, when Merlin spoke at an annual Discover Life in America conference in Gatlinburg, Tennessee in 2014. We’ve kept in touch ever since, encouraging her research and competition in local and regional science fairs. We were thrilled to hear that she had been awarded a full scholarship to represent the U.S. […]
Keynote Addresses Reach National Audiences
While leading news media, from The Wall Street Journal to Time magazine, were maligning bats with an unprecedented flood of scary stories threatening terrible disease pandemics, Merlin was busy setting the record straight. At the annual banquet of the National Speleological Society, in New Mexico, he thanked members for their invaluable service to bats over the past 40 years, […]
Return of “Batgirl” Alexis
Alexis won 1st place & Grand Champ, the 2017 SASEF Regional Science Fair. I have a very special treat, especially for those of you who have wondered what our bat prodigy, Alexis Valentine, has been up to lately. We met Alexis following one of Merlin’s lectures in 2014. She had been winning science fair prizes […]
Fiona Reid Original Bat Artwork Auction
Special opportunity to own this original artwork, “Nectar-feeding Bats.” 1/16/17 Update: SOLD! The original color illustration used for Plate 11 in “A Field Guide to the Mammals of Central America and Southeast Mexico” by Fiona A. Reid (Oxford University Press 1997, second ed. 2009). Fiona has painted more species of bats direct from life than […]
Bat Knowledge Shared at the Vatican
Merlin was invited to participate in a roundtable discussion of Pope Francis’ Encyclical, “On Care for Our Common Home,” at the Vatican, on November 2. The meeting was hosted by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Lab of University of California, Berkeley and REIL, an interdisciplinary experts group. The purpose was […]
Bats and Chewing Gum
Halloween candy aside, it would be a stretch for most people to think of bats when they reach for a packet of chewing gum at the grocery store. But bats actually play a vital role in the ecology of the tree that helped give birth to the entire chewing gum industry. The sapodilla (Manilkara zapota) is […]
Algerian Bat Group Workshop Success
Les Chauves Souris D’algerie, ALGERIAN BAT GROUP recently held a bat workshop in Algeria, hosted by Professor Mourad Ahmim of the University of Bejaia. The workshop focused on the importance of bats and their impact on the national economy. Merlin was asked to provide this 8-minute video introduction for workshop participants, giving them an overview of bat values and […]
Praise for Positivity
Many thanks to Mother Jones for this positive article and interview about bats with Merlin. Bats need lots more positive attention! Please take a moment to thank the author, Jenna Luna, and/or the Mother Jones staff for publishing truthful bat information. Listen to the Inquiring Minds podcast interview with Merlin here, interview begins at the 2:34 mark: […]