Monthly Archives: October 2024

Bats and Taquilla in Guadalajara, NASBR 2024 was a blast!

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Lots of familiar faces of past and present lab members at NASBR 2024! Despite some technical difficulties, Ben presented his talk “Taste, Influence, and Availability: the Key Factors driving Bat Meat Consumption”. Ben’s talk showed that bat meat consumption is driven by an interplay of multiple socio-cultural factors rather than just economics.  These findings underscore the importance of structuring conservation and public health interventions to more integratively target all drivers of behavior concern. Abby won the Luis F. Bacardi Bat Conservation Award for her talk “Bat Hunting in Sub-Saharan Africa: Mapping the Distribution of a Conservation-Relevant Human Behavior Using Hypothesis-Driven Models”, which was full of stats, bats, and maps (three of her favorite things!). Former lab post doc Maria Sagot encouraged her fellow bat scientists to join EchoMap, a collaborative global effort to increase capacity-building for bat acoustic monitoring resources. Learn more about EchoMap here. And of course, everyone had a great time at the banquet!

From the Bat Cave – Integrative Disease Ecology Research for Undergraduates

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Do you have an interest in bats, ecology, and viromes?
Are you looking for an opportunity to conduct field research?
Are you ready to sink your teeth into cutting-edge research?

We are seeking self-motivated, curious, and collaborative students for an exciting 7-week paid National Science Foundation (NSF) research experience investigating environment-host-virome dynamics within wild Egyptian fruit bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus). This interactive learning and research opportunity introduces undergraduates to integrative disease research, including fieldwork in Puerto Rico! Students will receive guided mentorship, attend daily group meetings, and get hands-on training in fieldwork, data analysis, coding, and science communication!

Eligible participants must be US citizens, US nationals, or US permanent residents and current students or recent college graduates. Selected undergraduates will devote five weeks to online training and group activities and 10 days to in-person field ecology training in Puerto Rico. All travel and accommodation expenses to Puerto Rico will be covered. Undergraduates will also receive a stipend of $5,000 for the 7 weeks. We particularly encourage students from underrepresented minorities to apply. Don’t let this NSF funded opportunity fly by! Apply now to join this Bat Cave for Summer 2025!

Application deadline is October 31, 2024. For more information and application instructions, please visit the link: https://lmdavalos.github.io/post/24-09-18-batcave/