The name of the blog is a throwback to my earlier years. Vespertilionidae (pronounced Vesper till ee on ih day) is the largest Family of bats in the United States, representing over three-quarters of the species found here. The Family is commonly referred to as the evening bats.
When I was studying Mammalogy as an undergrad, I was able to remember Vespertilionidae simply because vespers are evening prayers. See the association? Vesper, evening bats? A lot of biology is memorization. Word associations always helped me to remember scientific names – the crazier the word association, the more likely I was to remember it (ask me sometime how I remember the scientific name for elbow bush).
As bat work tends to begin after sunset and often continues well past midnight, “Vespers After Midnight” seemed to not only be a fitting description of my work, but also serve as a framework for the tales I hope to tell here.
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