Texas Tech visit

Thanks to the generosity of Robert Baker, I was invited to visit with faculty and students at Texas Tech University and give 3 talks-- a biology seminar, a family-friendly outreach talk, and a brief show-n-tell to a introductory biology class regarding my work with vampire bats. Thank you to everyone who met with me and … Continue reading Texas Tech visit

Updates: a conference talk, an outreach talk, and an article (and soon… results)

Did you know that Oct 26--Nov 1 is National Bat Week? October 23. Bat Meetings in Albany, NY. My 15-min talk is "Complex Cooperation: Food Sharing in Vampire Bats is Not Simply “Tit For Tat” October 30. Public outreach event at the Museum of Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas entitled Vampire Bats: The Secret Lives of … Continue reading Updates: a conference talk, an outreach talk, and an article (and soon… results)

This weekend: Great Lakes Bat Festival

September 27, 2014, 10 am to 5 pm. at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum Washtenaw Community College Morris Lawrence Center 4800 E. Huron River Drive Ann Arbor, Michigan I'll have a booth with live vampire bats and give a talk on vampires 4:30-5pm.

Field Course in Barro Colorado Island

I just spent 2 amazing weeks at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute at Barro Colorado Island, Panama as part of a graduate student course led by Hans-Ulrich Schnitzler, Annette Denzinger, Jerry Wilkinson, and Cindy Moss-- all leading authorities on vocal behavior in bats. I worked with two German students, Diana Shoeppler and Marie Manthey, on … Continue reading Field Course in Barro Colorado Island

Recent and relevant papers– July 23, 2014

Niche-specific cognitive strategies: object memory interferes with spatial memory in the predatory bat, Myotis nattereri (Journal of Experimental Biology)-- Fruit and flower bats tend to use spatial memory over shape because those foods don't move. But insect-eating bats tend to do the opposite, perhaps because insects have distinct shapes and don't stay still. Maternal lineages best explain … Continue reading Recent and relevant papers– July 23, 2014

A few recent updates

Some recent papers: Latest on social bonds in baboons from Seyfarth and Cheney lab Risky Ripples Allow Bats and Frogs to Eavesdrop on a Multisensory Sexual Display A biological market theory approach to plant-fungi mutualism. The past and future of Behavioral Ecology mentions vampire bat food sharing Three-dimensional space: locomotory style explains memory differences in rats … Continue reading A few recent updates

Live Vampire Bat webcam at Organization for Bat Conservation website

Click on image to view Live at Organization for Bat Conservation Live at Dropcam Past clips

A workshop on analyzing vocal sequences

I just returned from a 4-day NIMBioS workshop on computational analysis of animal vocal sequences. The workshop was led and organized by NIMBios PostDoc Fellow Arik Kershenbaum, prolific animal behaviorist Dan Blumstein, and bioacoustics-specialist and computer scientist Marie Roch, and included about 40 other researchers from diverse fields such as cognitive science, human speech processing, animal communication, and even philosophy. … Continue reading A workshop on analyzing vocal sequences

At the 2013 Animal Behavior Meetings

I'm at the Animal Behavior Meeting in Boulder, CO. Tomorrow is the last day. The talks here have been great, especially the first hour session on vocal communication in birds. Another highlight for me was Jesse Barber's talk on hawkmoth defenses against bats. More people than I expected turned out to see my talk on … Continue reading At the 2013 Animal Behavior Meetings

The story of “How I almost died in Trinidad”

A reporter from the Trinidadian press contacted me for this story. I feel like I have told it too many times. Hopefully, this will be the last time, and now I can just refer people to this blog post! First some background-- The last week of June I helped my labmate Danielle Adams with her … Continue reading The story of “How I almost died in Trinidad”