Bats are a weird and wonderful branch of the tree of life. The only mammals that can truly fly, and the group that has developed echolocation or "seeing with sound"…
A biologist known as Bolivia’s Batman, ground zero for Amazon deforestation in Peru, and camera traps showing the bird species from ancient cave drawings were among the top stories from…
Wearing nothing more than leaves hanging from belts of woven vegetation, the three scientists stand in the rain with little idea of what to expect. They’ve lived and worked with…
Wind turbines are a valuable source of renewable energy, but they’re eco-unfriendly in one particular way: the giant spinning blades frequently kill birds and bats. A new system that jams…
The culling of fruit bats in recent years to protect crops in Mauritius has pushed the species closer to extinction, and now the government is planning to do it again.…
A king penguin standing out starkly from the crowd took the top prize in the British Ecological Society’s “Capturing Ecology” photo competition this year. Chris Oosthuizen of South Africa’s University…
Sure, you may know that bats echolocate to control insect populations, but bats have other offbeat super powers. According to fossil records, bats have been around for at least 50…
South American bats speak dialects different from those of their North American counterparts. In response, a group of scientists has developed the first artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm for acoustic identification…
Imagine you are the head of a small NGO trying to conserve vultures. You have limited funds, and have to choose your actions carefully. Would supplementary feeding increase the population?…
Scientists know that bats boost the profits of farmers by fertilizing crops and keeping hungry insects in check. According to recent research, they also could clue farmers in to shifting…
For the past few decades, scientists have known of six species of fast-flying, insect-eating bats with dog-like faces — collectively called the dog-faced bats. Now, a group of researchers has described…
Predators help humans far more than they’re given credit for, despite the antagonistic nature of the relationship, according to a review of studies. “While predators and scavengers are a large…
On the island of Makira, in the eastern Solomon Islands, bat teeth are more valuable than paper money. But their use as a currency has contributed to widespread hunting of…
Camera trap footage has shown, for the first time, that a threatened bat species in Malaysia is an important pollinator of durian trees (Durio zibethinus). Past research in other parts…
A burned-out stump was all that remained by the time a team of virologists arrived in Méliandou in 2014. They had been hunting for the source of the deadly outbreak…
The character Yoda, the venerable Jedi Master from the Star Wars franchise, may have come from a galaxy far, far away, but his face seems to pop up a lot…
Bats have not historically been a focus of much conservation effort, but starting around 1985, conservationists in Canada and the United States began working to limit human access to bat…
In order to preserve a species from the impacts of human activities that degrade or fragment its habitat, it’s necessary to understand how the species responds to changes to the…
How do you save a species or protect a habitat? For the past few decades, scientists have been calling for an increased use of scientific evidence -- carefully controlled, peer-reviewed…
Scientists have uncovered a new species of bat in the mountains of Venezuela and Colombia. But its forest habitat is under big threat from slash-and-burn agriculture, and its discoverers are…
The saki, or "flying monkey," a mid-sized South American primate, gets its nickname from its ability to quietly skim through the tops of trees. These rainforest inhabitants use their sharp…
Gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans -- our great ape cousins teeter on the precipice of extinction. And it’s not much of a secret that we humans have had a lot to do…
Widespread deforestation is causing severe population decline in the little-known Livingstone’s fruit bat (Pteropus livingstonii), a new study has found. The rare bat is found only on two small islands…
Tun Lin has a unique occupation: he is the security guard at Linno limestone karst cave on the bank of the Salween River in Myanmar’s southeast Karen (Kayin) State. He…
It’s a hummingbird… it’s a bumblebee… it’s Kitti’s hog-nosed bat. Yes, seriously, look at it: it’s a bat. A teensy, tiny, teeny, weeny bat. Kitti’s hog-nosed bat (Craseonycteris thonglongyai) is…
Bats have seemingly always had a troubled relationship with wind farms. Giant whirling turbines scuttle their sensitive hearing and sonar, bringing down huge numbers in a way that only a…
ore than 160 bat species can be found flying through the Amazonian night — and their variety is astonishing. From the largest (the carnivorous Spectral, or False Vampire bat; Vampyrum…
A team of researchers has concluded that, in addition to being the Philippines’ largest and most populous island, Luzon Island is also home to the greatest concentration of unique species…
For the first time since 1970, a team of scientists has reviewed global trends in bat mortality. Unprecedented in scope, the review, published in Mammal Review, reveals that over half…
The fatal white-nose syndrome (WNS) that has decimated bat populations across North America has now made its way to western United States. On March 11, a group of hikers discovered a…
An app and portal aimed at improving bat surveys and broadening participation in bat population monitoring
Despite widespread protests by conservation groups and citizens, Mauritius will start culling its native Mauritius fruit bats (Pteropus niger) tomorrow. These bats are listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red…