Non-maternal allogrooming of pups

We have four new vampire bats. The bats here at the field station have been breeding in captivity, which is a good sign that they are doing well, and it ensures we have some highly related dyads for our experiments. My first intern, Jana, just took this neat video of a mother and her new pup … Continue reading Non-maternal allogrooming of pups

Q & A with our new interns

Every season, two volunteer interns will be assisting the vampire bat food-sharing project at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Gamboa, Panama. These are our first two interns for Spring 2016. A month ago, eighteen-year-old whiz kid Jana Nowatzki (left) joined our project from Konstanz, Germany. Jana is a surprisingly self-motivated, bright, positive, and precocious student. Armed … Continue reading Q & A with our new interns

Updates

Jan 14, Bambi Seminar, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Barro Colorado Island, Panama -- "The Reciprocity Controversy" Jan 19, talk at University of Washington, Psychology Department -- "Why do vampire bats share food?" Jan 20, talk at University of Washington, Psych Dept, Animal Behavior Group -- "Reciprocity with and without social bonding" Feb 8-9, I'll be at … Continue reading Updates

Field notes on vampire catching

Dec 12, 2015 I caught my first group of common vampire bats and brought them to the field station. It was important that all the females I captured came from the same roost. At 5:52 pm on Dec 12, 2015, I started observing the entrance (a 1 meter high triangular hole) to a large hollow-tree … Continue reading Field notes on vampire catching

VampCam featured at Smithsonian and some recent papers

The VampCam is being featured on the STRI website frontpage. There's an inaccuracy though-- it gives the wrong name of the authors on the study they discuss. I did that social grooming study in collaboration with the Organization for Bat Conservation and co-author Lauren Leffer, an undergraduate at the University of Maryland. I've been in Gamboa, … Continue reading VampCam featured at Smithsonian and some recent papers

Talk today (Aug 31) at Cambridge

Talk: Cooperative food-sharing in the vampire bat Today! Monday August 31st @ 3 PM Location: Zoology Part II Lecture Theatre, Cambridge University, Downing Street, Cambridge, UK CB2 3EJ Map Thanks to Neeltje for organizing this talk.

Know any bat biologists looking for a postdoc position?

Do you know anyone who might be interested in a position studying the foraging behavior of frog-eating bats? If so, keep reading this update to my last post. First, some background: the position is working with two of the best young scientists working with bat behavior. Yossi Yovel's lab in Tel Aviv, Israel have invented the most exciting … Continue reading Know any bat biologists looking for a postdoc position?

Recent Updates

My defense talk is April 8th 2-3pm. See my previous post below. I recently analyzed my playback data and found that vampire bats are more attracted to the calls of high donors vs low donors of similar sex and low relatedness. More soon... Micah Miles (right) was one of the undergraduate assistants who helped me … Continue reading Recent Updates

Dissertation defense talk date and time

I submitted my dissertation to my doctoral committee. If interested, you can read my submitted draft here (note: this link is temporary until my official approved dissertation is published by the school). There are 4 chapters: 1) my reciprocity review paper, 2) my study on predictors of vampire bat food sharing, 3) a study on oxytocin and food … Continue reading Dissertation defense talk date and time

In the news

Cute story on vampire bats on the BBC Earth News website.