This was a holiday with Batwatch led by Fiona Reid author of Mammals of Central America and Southern Mexico and experienced bat researcher.
We flew out to Managua and had a chance to visit Mayasa National Park. The volcano there last erupted in 1772 but the air was still heavy with sulphurous air.
The view into the crater was amazing and more amazing was the fact that there was a colony of vampires living in a lava tube within the crater.
From there we drove up the road to a set of caves in a lava pipe. This area is being monitored for bat activity and our Nicaraguan guide Arnulfo Medina Fitoria was due to be carrying out a regular harp trapping exercise that evening and we were allowed to help out.
Those of us used to catching bats in the UK count a catch going into double figures as remarkable – here 501 were caught over a period of two hours. The team of bat workers had to move very to idenitify and release the bats. And what bats- all from the same family the Mormoopidae
- This bat is called the naked backed bat but in fact it has fir underneath the wings which join over the back
Pteronotus gymnonotus is similar to P dayvii in that it has also has a naked back but is larger has a much moré velvety sheen to its tail and legs
Mormoops megalophylla Ghost faced bat. We had met these in Trinidad but the Nicaraguan ones were not as brightly orange.
These really are amazing looking bats and it was a fantastic start to the holiday.
We headed back and after a meal in a local restaurant complete with karaoke and fantastic food and headed off to sleep before a very early morning start.
We piled into a minibus and spent five hours driving down to San Carlo. Here all our kit was loaded on a boat and we headed off up the river San Juan. We had to stop several times along the way to hand over a list of our passports
Then we arrived at our home for the rest of the holiday at Refugio Bartholi. I’ve never stayed on one place for so long on a trip and it was great. You really got a chance to get a sense of place and there was so much to see there was no need to travel long distances. During the day we roamed the trails.Most nights we set up nets quite close to the Refugio, while the hardier souls headed deeper into the forest. We went in the rainy season and it was very wet in times. The rain was fantastic but left the clay soils treacherous.
be continued…….
I’ve put a gallery of the Phyllostomidae that we saw in the following days
You will hopefully get a taste of the experience of watching bats in this article I wrote for the newsletter, describing one night’s mist netting..2012-1NIcaraguan night