Medellin, Colombia 2028! #ibrc2028 #bats #batresearch

The unwarranted denial of travel visas for 8 respected international bat researchers was a shameful and embarrassing start to the International Bat Research Conference in Cairns. Well done to the ABS and Guardian for highlighting it @ibrc2025.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Cecilia Montauban is taking the bat world by storm — a rising superstar with a brilliant future! @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social @josephtobias.bsky.social @ibrc2025.bsky.social

IBRC delegates protest visa denials of 8 researchers from Africa and Asia. #ibrc2025 #batresearch www.theguardian.com/environment/...

It was incredible to meet so many old and new colleagues and friends and watching our PhD student, Sauhard Shrivastava give an excellent talk. Overall, we learnt lots and we are certainly returning with more ideas and inspiration. Thank you, #IBRC2025. #LZCI (2/2) @ibrc2025.bsky.social

I had an excellent time at #IBRC2025 hosting the comparative immunology sessions and co-presenting our work on bat antiviral immunity with Dr. Irving at the Bat1K symposium. (1/2)

Wow – what an intense and truly amazing 6 days at @ibrc2025.bsky.social! 🦇 Reconnected with old friends, made new ones, and had incredible conversations — all in the spirit of bat conservation and research. Huge shoutout to the organizers for a perfectly run event! 🙌💙 #BatCommunity #Grateful

There were so many great talks at #IBRC2025 and so much going on that I’ve been too busy to post! The conference ended on a high with an inspiring presentation by Tigga Kingston on the mission and achievements of @gbatnet.bsky.social. Can’t wait til #IBRC2028 in Columbia! @ibrc2025.bsky.social

🦇Friday plenary speaker: Tigga Kingston #ibrc2025

Just attended a very captivating and fun speed talk by Veli Monday Mdluli on bat education in South African schools 🦇📚 @ibrc2025.bsky.social Inspiring work on breaking down prejudice through knowledge! 👏 #IBRC2025 #BatConservation #SciComm #EducationMatters

Afternoon of day 5 presentations 🦇 #ibrc2025

Kicking off the Education and Citizen Science symposium, Melissa Donnelly from Merlin Tuttle Bats talks about battling bat 🦇 misinformation & helping people make informed decisions @ibrc2025.bsky.social #ibrc2025

Pedro Aguilar 🇲🇽 talks about the relationship between a university 🏫 & bat 🦇 colony that lived there for past 60 years. Started monitoring bats with 3 different species identified with over 300 bats mostly males. Issues fighting building maintenance 🧑‍🔧 but outreach valuable 🤩 @ibrc2025.bsky.social

Tigga Kingston 🇺🇸 presents on behalf of Abby Rutrough about why people hunt bats 🦇 in Africa 🌍. Terrestrial protein 🥩 limited and human footprint 🏙️ in West Africa but aquatic protein 🐟 available in Madagascar 🇲🇬 but still hunt bats. More social surveys needed to find out why @ibrc2025.bsky.social

Celia Selem 🇲🇽 talks about outreach conservation in Mexico but also regional collaboration across other countries in Latin America. 18 countries now involved in their annual Christmas 🎄 bat 🦇 counts 🥰 @ibrc2025.bsky.social #ibrc2025

Veil Monday Mdluli from South Africa 🇿🇦 talks about finding out perceptions of bats in school students to battle misconceptions about bats 🦇 Need to communicate our science via education 🤩 @ibrc2025.bsky.social #ibrc2025

Our very own Kerry Borkin 🇳🇿 talks about engaging students at Pekapekarau School and what worked to change attitudes of bats 🦇 @ibrc2025.bsky.social #ibrc2025

Two super nice talks from @berlinbatlab.bsky.social today @ibrc2025.bsky.social! @RaffaellaCastiglione introduced an amazing touchscreen setup for bat cognition studies; @MarisaTietge explored the social complexity of Vampyrum spectrum, the largest bat in the Americas 🤩🦇 #BatsRule #IBRC2025

Night 4 trivia supporting Bats and Trees Society of Cairns 🦇 Thank you Anna Langguth for the images! #ibrc2025

After the break 🧁 Jessica Meade 🇦🇺 talks on movement of grey-headed flying foxes 🦇 and wind 💨 farms. Altitude measures show 84% of 🦇 flights are in rotor zone ⛔️. Mitigation could be wind speed, bat activity, or on-demand shutdowns. Weather radar could help show bat arrival 📈 @ibrc2025.bsky.social

@emmateeling.bsky.social at #IBRC2025. Healthy ageing and longevity. @ibrc2025.bsky.social

Next Stevie Florent 🇳🇿 looked to create benchmarks for detecting rates 🦇 and carcass persistence at wind 💨 farm in Australia 🇦🇺 . Dogs 🐕 much better at finding bats than humans! Cleared ground carcass last longer than non cleared. Not enough data 📉 on mortality in NZ @ibrc2025.bsky.social #ibrc2025

Danielle Eastick 🇦🇺 looked at long term data sets of bat 🦇 mortality in Australian wind 💨 farms. 42% White striped free tailed bat & 21% Gould’s Wattle bat. 78% found within 60m of turbine. Estimated mortality rate 9.9 bats/turbine/year. 24% in March 🍂 @ibrc2025.bsky.social #ibrc2025

Rohit Chakravarty 🇮🇳 @batcon.org reflects very difficult to get data from wind 💨 farm consultants in India so looked at bat 🦇 activity in areas with and without farms. He found no significant difference overall but depends on species. Seems to be higher collisions in monsoons @ibrc2025.bsky.social

Most entertaining talk so far at #IBRC2025 by Fauzan.

After 11 years, Aaron and I tag teamed a joint seminar on Genotype to Phenotype: Bat immunity at #IBRC2025 @batresearch.bsky.social @ibrc2025.bsky.social

Day 5 morning presentations 🦇 #ibrc2025

Alba Coronado Gomis 🇪🇸 also speaks on her assessment of 🦇 impact on renewable energy in Europe. She looked at what is “normal” bat activity via acoustic monitoring 🎤 as an evaluation tool to create thresholds 📈 of potential impact @ibrc2025.bsky.social #ibrc2025

Lindy also looked at migration patterns across multiple Australian 🇦🇺 bat 🦇 species but did not see a correlation with autumn 🍂 period. Very curious what it is about autumn 🤔 #ibrc2025 @ibrc2025.bsky.social

Impressed with all the volunteer work going on in the world rehabilitating bats. This morning at the #ibrc2025 we heard from a few of these amazing volunteer rehabilitators. Karina from www.instagram.com/eyesofacres/... talked about their success reuniting bat pups with their mothers

Teague O’Mara from @batcon.org looked at international data of altitude of wind 💨 turbines and bats 🦇. He looked at data 📈 & found bats fly & spend lot of time in danger ⛔️ zone of turbines consistently. More sampling needed. Could on-demand shutdowns work? @ibrc2025.bsky.social #ibrc2025

Another great talk about bat rehabilitation at the #ibrc2025. Robin Rowland brightened my day! She followed bats released in SE QLD and found that the effort and money volunteers invest in rehabilitating bats is worth it!

Another remarcable talk by my amazing daughter Amaranta Ortiz Gomez at the #ibrc2025 showing that the work of volunteers is relentless: 8 volunteers each invests 300 days a year looking after microbats. Collectively have cared for more than 1200 bats in the past 6 years

What do you call a gathering of Australian bat physiologists? #IBRC2025

First up for the last day of talks in the Wind Energy and Battery Impact symposium, Rob Gration 🇦🇺 looked at collision vulnerability of microbats 🦇 based on risk characteristics/behaviour @ibrc2025.bsky.social #ibrc2025

Next the legendary Lindy Lumsden 🇦🇺 looked at wind farms in Victoria. Estimated 11.4 bats 🦇 killed/turbine/year. Some turbines as high as 26 mortality/turbine/year! No clear pattern on turbine choice but seasonal peak in autumn 🍂 @ibrc2025.bsky.social #ibrc2025

Day 4 poster sessions 🦇 #ibrc2025

Day 4 poster sessions 🦇 #ibrc2025

After lunch 🥗 Manuel Ruedi from Switzerland 🇨🇭 speaks about using metabarcoding to look at how bats 🦇 feed and when ⏰- see papers below @ibrc2025.bsky.social #ibrc2025

Day 4 #IBRC2025

Next Jill Carpenter 🇺🇸 speaks about looking for guano 💩 samples for Big Brown Bat 🦇 under bridges 🌉 in Los Angeles. Being a new mum 🧒 and having a supportive partner 💪 driving 🚗 to sites across LA helped! Still needing to interpret results of dietary abundance 🪲 🦟 🦋 @ibrc2025.bsky.social #IBRC2025

Bethany Schulze 🇺🇸 looks at Hoary and Western Red bats 🦇 as bioindicators 🚦in urban 🌃 areas in California. Strong evidence bats 🦇 foraging with 0.5km of forest 🌳 which could be umbrella ☂️ species of healthy forest bioindicator 🚥 @ibrc2025.bsky.social #ibrc2025

Jessica Jamison 🇨🇦 speaks about sugar metabolism in the evolution 🧬 of bats 🦇 by measuring the CO2 🌫️ after feeding nectar to bats. Results may show nectar feeding 🌺 bats may not have evolved from fruit 🍌 or insect 🦗 feeding bats 🦇 @ibrc2025.bsky.social #ibrc2025

Some of the presentations from the afternoon of day 4 🦇 #ibrc2025

Some of the presentations from the afternoon of day 4 🦇 #ibrc2025

Murray Kelman 🇦🇺 looked at mapping 🗺️ the habitat 🌳 of Little Forest Bats 🦇 in New South Wales by radio 📻 tracking. Much higher home range result of 160ha compared to other studies 📚 which may be around wetter forest 🌳 areas with more food 🦟 @ibrc2025.bsky.social #ibrc2025

If you happen to be at the @ibrc2025.bsky.social in Cairns, come by my talk tomorrow at 9:45 AM! I’ll be speaking about self-medication in phyllostomid #bats and a new technique to identify individual bats by their wingprints. Would love to see you there! #IBRC2025 #BatResearch 🍈🦇

Highlights from the second visit to the Cattana Wetlands: day 3, Wednesday night 🦇 #ibrc2025

Maansi Sharan 🇮🇳 speaks too on endangered Hippposideros hypophyllus bats 🦇 looking at the diet 🦋. They are threatened by mining ⛏️ but a new fenced 🚧 conservation reserve in 2022 and same protection as 🐅 and 🐘 however bats 🦇 feed in wider agriculture 🧑‍🌾 landscape @ibrc2025.bsky.social #ibrc2025

Rajesh Puttaswamaiah 🇮🇳 talks about radio 📻 tracking endangered Hippposideros hypophyllus bats 🦇 using scooters 🛵 in forestry 🌲 and agriculture 🧑‍🌾 land. It showed him that bats preferred 🥭 plantation but more study needed @ibrc2025.bsky.social #ibrc2025