Settling In

After a 2 hour drive south from Managua, we arrived at our field house located 20 minutes out of San Juan del Sur in the Rivas province. The “field house” is a villa owned by an American. The villa is square in shape, with the house opening onto an inner courtyard with an open roof. The kitchen, living room, and bedrooms all open onto the inner courtyard. The rooms have screened windows on the outer and inner walls that allow for cross breezes but help keep out flying insects.

Villa courtyard, all the bedrooms, kitchen, and living room open onto the courtyard.

Estella, the villa burro, lives in the north paddock, and the rooster and hen roam on the south side of the house. We chose our bedrooms based on which animal we thought least likely to wake us up (my bedroom window faces north, ironically the rooster, not the burro, woke me up this morning). A pack of three dogs roam the villa providing alternating services as guard dogs (they’re trained to bark at unfamiliar people) and garbage disposals. A piece of watermelon rind will win you the undying devotion of Estella while the dog’s affections can be earned with meat scraps or ear scratches.

Estella, the villa burro that loves watermelon (sandia).

The Lopez family lives in a small house to the side of the villa. They have been hired to assist the field crew for the duration of our project. Martin, the husband, is the villa handyman and security detail. Virginia, the wife, cooks us one meal per day (usually lunch) and does basic cleaning such as sweeping and laundry. The young boy, Victor, age 9, is bright-eyed and extremely intelligent. He is an ever-present shadow hovering on the edge of conversations, soaking up the conversations, the tasks we’re completing, and the pictures in the field books we’re looking through. Jessica, age 11, is extremely shy so she flits in and out.

The field crew is led by Carol, the visiting professor on sabbatical, and is composed of rotating volunteers and three full-time Nicaraguan employees, Christian, Jose, and Marlin. They are responsible for moving un-manned (passive) acoustic microphones between sites during the day, collecting acoustic call files from the bats at night, and serving as our interpreters/security/local guides. The volunteers are mostly American biologists experienced in bat work that have flown in to help for a short period of time ranging from a few days to a few weeks.

About 100 species of bats are known in Nicaragua as opposed to around 45 species in the United States. We joke that a bad night netting down here is better than the best night in the United States. Our second night out has been the best so far with 81 bats representing 17 species. I will be able to post higher quality photographs soon, but in the meantime here are some of the species captured so far:

Common vampire bat

Greater fishing bat, a piscivorous (fish-eating) species

Greater White-lined Bat, The white tissue on the bat's wing is a special sac that contains pheromones.
The male bats will wave their wings towards a female to woo her.