It's been already more than a week I am settled in Gamboa for my third fieldwork season of my PhD.
I am accompanied with Matthieu Ménage, a french bat guy, to help me in the field.
We had a busy program in the past days with several nights of catching and transpondering individuals
of Molossus molossus in different colonies. We have also installed two more automated systems
to monitor automatically bat activity with Pit-tags (individual use of roost, emergence and return times, weight gain).
The more recent program was focused on collar testing. Usually, we glue radio-transmitters on the back of animals.
However, this procedure is not ideal as Molossus molossus can remove the transmitters with their feet
and also scratch off their fur. We are now developing, with tips from Teague, hand-made collars to glue the transmitters on.
We have realised tests on captive individuals, kept in baby tents for a few days and hand-fed by meal-worms.
The design of the collars is promising but requires further tests.
I am accompanied with Matthieu Ménage, a french bat guy, to help me in the field.
We had a busy program in the past days with several nights of catching and transpondering individuals
of Molossus molossus in different colonies. We have also installed two more automated systems
to monitor automatically bat activity with Pit-tags (individual use of roost, emergence and return times, weight gain).
The more recent program was focused on collar testing. Usually, we glue radio-transmitters on the back of animals.
However, this procedure is not ideal as Molossus molossus can remove the transmitters with their feet
and also scratch off their fur. We are now developing, with tips from Teague, hand-made collars to glue the transmitters on.
We have realised tests on captive individuals, kept in baby tents for a few days and hand-fed by meal-worms.
The design of the collars is promising but requires further tests.