You study Bats? The bats that fly? Why?!
I cannot count how many times I've been asked this question. The inflection used by the speaker when asking "why" varies between curiosity and revulsion. It never fails to make me smile.
My work with bats started in 2002 in the southwestern US. I was working as a wildlife biologist and was introduced to a husband and wife team of bat biologists. Seriously. There really are people that study bats for a living.
I quickly became enamored with bats. Their nocturnal lifestyle, ability to fly, and echolocation set them apart from other animals. While I found the animals themselves to be fascinating, the act of studying them was equally so. I spent countless hours during those first years conducting mine surveys, mine outflight counts, and mist netting surveys. Bats became an addiction and I used my accrued vacation time to attend conferences, workshops, and radio telemetry studies. Other people thought I was crazy. This opinion has not changed much.
A few years later I decided to return to graduate school to pursue my master’s degree. It seemed only fitting that bats should be the focus of my research. I moved cross-country to the east coast and settled in a small town in the Appalachians. My research over the next few years focused mainly on subterranean habitat (places underground that bats used) such as abandoned coal mines, caves, and other man-made holes in the ground.
After earning my degree, I found a position that enables me to combine my love for bats with research and education. I feel lucky to be able to do what I do. And, of course, to this day, I continue to be asked, “You study bats? Why?!?”.
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