Spectral bats, the largest 🦇 in the Americas, aren’t just fierce carnivores with up to one meter wingspan. New research from @MarisaTietge from @berlinbatlab.bsky.social shows they hug, share food, play with bugs & huddle in “cuddle balls" doi.org/10.1126/scie...

Wow – what an intense and truly amazing 6 days at @ibrc2025.bsky.social! 🦇
Reconnected with old friends, made new ones, and had incredible conversations — all in the spirit of bat conservation and research.
Huge shoutout to the organizers for a perfectly run event! 🙌💙
#BatCommunity #Grateful

Kicking off the Education and Citizen Science symposium, Melissa Donnelly from Merlin Tuttle Bats talks about battling bat 🦇 misinformation & helping people make informed decisions @ibrc2025.bsky.social #ibrc2025

Just attended a very captivating and fun speed talk by Veli Monday Mdluli on bat education in South African schools 🦇📚 @ibrc2025.bsky.social
Inspiring work on breaking down prejudice through knowledge! 👏
#IBRC2025 #BatConservation #SciComm #EducationMatters

Two super nice talks from @berlinbatlab.bsky.social today @ibrc2025.bsky.social! @RaffaellaCastiglione
introduced an amazing touchscreen setup for bat cognition studies; @MarisaTietge explored the social complexity of Vampyrum spectrum, the largest bat in the Americas 🤩🦇
#BatsRule #IBRC2025

If you happen to be at the @ibrc2025.bsky.social in Cairns, come by my talk tomorrow at 9:45 AM!
I’ll be speaking about self-medication in phyllostomid #bats and a new technique to identify individual bats by their wingprints.
Would love to see you there!
#IBRC2025 #BatResearch 🍈🦇

Amazing start to the International Bat Research Conference in Cairns! 🦇 🇦🇺 So great to reconnect with my esteemed friend and colleague Merlin Tuttle - nothing beats sharing our passion for bats with fellow researchers from around the world. #IBRC2025 #BatResearch #BatConservation

Today 10th of June at 4 PM Panama time, I'll be giving a Tupper talk @stri_panama on self-medication in bats. Curious? Join me online and discover what bats are up to when they are immune-challenged! 🍈🦇

smithsonian.zoom.us/j/8724629288...
Password: 438162; Webinar ID: 872 4629 2885

We have excellent scientists in Europe, but well, good idea, the more, the merrier!

Captured these stunning patterns created by #bioluminescent beetle larvae (likely from the tribe #Pyrophorini) using long time exposure. We found these tiny larvae (~1cm) on the ground in the rainforest while we were catching bats in the #Soberanía National Park! 🦇🐛🌴

Check out this story @smithsonianmag.bsky.social about our SELFCURE project, funded by the Human Frontiers Science Program with additional support from the EU Scientist4Scientist initiative, helping us integrate talented Ukrainian scientists into the project! 🇺🇦🦇🇵🇦
@stri_panama @bats_ukraine