Bats of Brazil

Brazil is one of the most biodiverse countries on Earth. According to the IUCN Redlist, Brazil is home to 167 species of bat inhabiting a variety of biomes, including Amazon Rainforest, Atlantic Rainforest, Pantanal, Cerrado, and Caatinga. I began studying the bats of Brazil during a semester studying abroad in Rio de Janeiro in 2008. I then spent a year researching bats of the Cerrado at the Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul in Campo Grande as a Fulbright grantee in 2012 / 2013. Since leaving, I have continued to collaborate with my colleagues.

Main Project - Findings So Far:

Bats in the Cerrado

The Cerrado is a tropical Brazilian biome that is under-protected and under-monitored for wildlife. We monitored bats in urban and rural fragments and continuous Cerrado. We captured 21 different bat species in total, with 9-18 species per site. We found differences in bat diversity, abundance, and evenness between the fragments. The highest number of species were found in the continous Cerrado. Similarity was highest between the rural fragment and continuous Cerrado. Read more here!

Leishmania in bats

We made the first detection of Leishmaniasis braziliensis in bats and the first record of Leishmania in Mato Grosso do Sul. The bats belonged to two different species, Glossophaga soricina (top photo) found in a rural area and Molossus molossus (bottom photo) found within the city of Campo Grande. Read more here!

Fungal filaments and bats

We described fungal filaments that we found in the nasal hairs of several free-tailed bat species in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. We identified 22 different-looking fungi in culture and 11 different genetic sequences from these cultures. The fungi did not appear to have negative effects on the bats. Read more here!

Other Collaborations

Bats of the Pantanal

We recorded 37 different species of bat in undersampled areas of the western Pantanal. 32% of captured bats belonged to one species - the flat-faced fruit-eating bat. We found differences in species richness between different subregions of the Pantanal, probably due to differences in vegetation structure and resources across the region. Read more here!

Bats of the Atlantic Rainforest

Urban parks and forest remnants can provide important habitat for wildlife such as bats. We sampled bats in the Gericinó-Mendanha Massif on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. Over four years, we captured 874 bats, belonging to 25 species. This conservation unit is an important remaining fragment for maintaining the diversity and richness of bats. Read more here!

Roadkill

From March to September 2011, UFMS undergraduate Naira de Carvalho found 257 individual animals killed on a stretch of highway between Campo Grande and Rochedo. Birds and mammals were the most frequently hit taxa. The sections of highway closest to cities had the highest number of individual animals killed. Higher vegetation density also led to a greater amount of roadkill. Read more here!

Feeding behavior of bees

Thiago Santos (currently a PhD student at the Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul) was an undergraduate at the time he observed bees of the species Trigona recursa feeding on Crotalaria micans, which is toxic to mammals and poultry, without any negative effects. Read more here!