I am in the starting-blocks for a new fieldwork season in Panama. I will fly to Panama mid-July and stay until mid-August. My goal for this season is to catch all the colonies already surveyed in the previous fieldwork seasons - especially to collect DNA samples and equip non-marked bat with a subcutaneous transponder. This transponder can be scanned either manually (hand-held transponder reader) or automatically (automated transponder reader at roost entrance). This method is very useful to obtain data on dispersal, group composition and also survival.

A german Master student will help me for the catching and removal of bats from the nets. In parallel, this assistant will conduct some captivity experiments for his master's thesis. His project will focus on heart-rate and temperature to better understand metabolic rates of tropical animals.

This should be the last but one fieldwork season of my PhD, the last one being planned in November-December. I will then have one year and a half to go in the lab for my DNA samples, analyse the collected data and write my PhD thesis.

I'm going back next week for a third fieldwork season in the village of Gamboa Panama. Program: to continue data collection on my doctoral model species: Molossus molossus. And a field mission requires a bit of organisation !

As with all trips, I organize for me and my assistant the housing and transportation (plane, train, taxi ...). Together with my french assistant, we will live in an apartment provided by the host institution, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. These homes are located in the village, near my roosts of bats.

To complete my research legally, research permits for sample collection (skin, guano) must be written in Spanish and sent to the Panamanian authorities before verification. When my fieldwork season comes to an end, I will send a report of my fieldwork season and ask for an export permit to bring back to Germany the samples collected.

And to complete the organization for the field, preparation of material is essential. Checking nets, preparing telemetry equipment, electronic testing, preparation of materials for sample collection ... the list is long!

And before I go, I am working on my fieldwork program to plan the 11 weeks in the field.
Catch sampling, radio-tracking ... More news when I'm on the ground!

Last week was pretty intense with three different meetings!

The first meeting was my PhD commitee with my PhD advisors.
One year after the beginning of my PhD, this meeting is intended to talk about the progress,
identify the weaknesses and discuss about the program for the following year.
Principal advice (useful for me but every student in general) - don't neglect the reading of papers and books...
With all the other tasks (fieldwork, logistics...), it can be easily set aside.

The second meeting was a brain huddle - a sort of brainstorming.
With colleagues from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology,
we discussed about the data from the automated balance systems I have installed in Panama.
The discussions helped me to get interesting tips about the way to look at my data and extract the essential information.
In the next weeks, I will try and move forward with these automated analyses

To finish, the third meeting was about the tracking session that will occur in Spring 2013.
This fieldwork session will combine tracking of Molossus molossus and Uroderma bilobatum
to understand the social foraging of these two species. The meeting was intended to talk about
the methods and logistics. A blogpost (at least) about that next Spring :).

Over a month has passed since the last blogpost. The schedule was busy, with an emphasis on installing my automatic scales. The crucial part is for the bats to accept the change of entrance of theirs roosts. For that I gradually modify the roost entrances with pieces of wood and I check acceptance by bats using video recordings. The first balance is expected to enter service this week!

Among other activities, I presented my project to the scientific community of Gamboa and I plan to make a public outreach presentation on bats to children of the village school. I also spent writing the first chapter of my PhD and also on export permits. After acceptance by the future government of Panama, this permit will allow me to export my DNA samples from bats and later proceed to the analysis in Germany.

I postponed my departure from Panama two weeks to be able to install all scales. Back in Germany scheduled for mid-July! Meanwhile, more pictures and news on this blog :).