Bats, bats everywhere

Staying busy is not a problem here. Between our field schedule and running errands in town and at the market, there is little down time in which I am able to write. Here is a post in pictures of the latest bats and scenery.

One of the many turtle beaches we have visited. Costa Rica can be seen in the background.
An arribada (when sea turtles arrive en masse to lay eggs) of 3,000 sea turtles might be happening
this next week. Sea turtle tours are a major tourist attraction and generate a lot of revenue. There is
also a lot of egg poaching with the poachers eating the eggs themselves (free source of protein) and selling
them for $1 per dozen. Daily salaries range from $2 to $5 so this can be a major source of income.
Wildlife conservation here depends on understanding the society, culture and economic hardships.

Our "laundry line". As bats are removed from the nets, we hang them on the line until we can process them (this involves taking specific measurements, identifying the sex and reproductive status as well as the species).

Intermediate Fruit-eating Bat (Artibeus intermedius). One of the larger bats we catch frequently. 

Thomas' Fruit-eating bat (Artibeus watsoni). Cute little buggers that are fairly easy to
remove from the nets as long as you watch their mouths - they love to bite!

Wrinkle-faced bat (Centurio senex). Out of 1,000 bats captured on this project, only 2 have
been this species.  They are so ugly they're cute. These bats have a wrinkled face with no fur.
They have a skin flap under their chin that is raised over their face (the flap has 2 slits for the eyes)
during courtship. . .this, of course, has created many jokes about paper bags over heads.
We were very, very excited to catch this guy!