_This 3-week-fieldwork stay has already come to an end!
We caught a lot of my model species, Molossus molossus, and discovered new roosts.
Thanks a lot to Dina, Julia, Teague and other members of Rachel Page's lab for helping in the field!

A good surprise for the last night of catching, was the discovery of a roost of Noctilio albiventris.
A new family of bats for me, added to bat discoveries mentioned in my previous post.
Other good surprises before leaving was to see an armadillo and an opposum!
Looking forward to come back in April for more "tropical discoveries"!

Meanwhile, holidays in France and back to the office for 3 months in Germany!

This first PhD expedition in Panama is the opportunity for me to discover my bat model species, Molossus molossus, in its environment and to learn all the fieldwork techniques. Over the last few days, with the help of the fieldwork team, I have practiced catching, measuring, equiping bats with transponders (~ intern chip) and also radiotracking with transmitters.
Extra to my model species, we also caught 3 other bat species (Myotis and Phyllostomidae, on which I worked during my Master's research internships): Myotis nigricans/riparius, Carollia perspicillata and Uroderma bicolor. Yesterday, we catch the last one with some green fruits looking like figs. A few individuals of this same species are roosting on my housing building. Looking forward to the next species ! Next might be the frog-eating bat (Trachops cirrhosus), a model species studied in Rachel Page's batlab, nextdoor to mine !

After a long flight from Zurich (Switzerland), I finally arrived in Panama. For three weeks, I will stay in the village of Gamboa, closeby the Panama Canal and surrounded by the jungle. This is the place where I will come several times for my PhD fieldwork on Molossus molossus. Numerous colonies of the species can be found troughout the village. Furthermore, numerous facilities (housing...) are available through the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.  Here are a few pictures for you to discover this great place. I will keep you posted about my naturalistic observations !