We use bats to uncover biological insights essential to human health that lie beyond the reach of established animal models used in the lab.
🌸 Anoura geoffroyi , from Trinidad, pollinates a diverse assemblage of night-blooming plants across the Neotropics, supporting floral diversity and ecosystem resilience through its extensive foraging networks.
🌸 Glossophaga mutica from Belize.
🌸 Glossophaga commissarisi from Belize.
🌽 Carollia perspicillata is a Neotropical fruit bat that specializes on Piper species, playing a key role in seed dispersal and the regeneration of secondary forests.
🥭 Artibeus jamaicensis is a fruit bat found throughout the neotropics. They have variable fur patterning on the face, often with faint stripes.
🥭 Dermanura phaeotis
🥭 Ectophylla alba in a self-made tent in Costa Rica.
🌸🥭🦋Phyllostomus discolor are omnivorous, with a preference for nectar, pollen, and flowers.
🦋 Gardnerycteris crenulatum is an insect-eating bat.
🩸This baby Desmodus rotundus is one of the three species of obligate blood feeders. They start with drinking milk and switch to specializing in mammal blood!
🦋 Micronycteris schmidtorum and other species within this genus represent the earliest-branching lineage of phyllostomid bats.
🦋 Micronycteris minuta
🦗 Lophostoma evotis
🐸 Trachops cirrhosus
🦗Mimon cozumelae
🪲 Pteronotus mesoamericanus in Belize.
📷 Bat flight photos by Brock Fenton