Bat Island
BAT ISLAND: A Journey into the Hidden World of Tropical Bats
December 14, 2023
Meet the 76 species of bats that occupy this small island!
Meet the 76 species of bats that occupy this small island!
A volcanic eruption 22 million years ago triggered a sediment flow that preserved a mangrove forest around what is now Barro Colorado Island, providing a better glimpse of the vegetation that existed in a highly changing area.
My research seeks to optimize the conservation of birds and biodiversity in tropical working landscapes, especially coffee and cocoa growing regions of Latin America. I lead the Smithsonian Bird Friendly® program, which offers a gold standard certification for coffee and cocoa farms that...
Five Panamanian scientists share a glance at the experience of working in the tropical biologist’s dream, Barro Colorado Island.
Research projects in our lab combine approaches from behavioral ecology, functional morphology, ethology and evolution of behavior. Our work focuses mostly on the ultimate and proximate causes of behavior in an ecological and social context, with an emphasis on how ecological or social...
Irene Kopelman’s most recent exhibit, which includes a new collaboration with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, can be seen at Panama’s Museum of Contemporary Art.
Over the last two years, staff at the Ukrainian Bat Rehabilitation Center have worked to save bats from the dangers of the Russian full-scale invasion. Now, they join researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute to study bat behavior in Panama.
An innovative and low-cost project to bio-convert food scraps into fertilizer, animal feed and extractable oil using the Black Soldier Fly.
Spix’s disc-winged bats shrieked when they were first shown mealworms, a new food for them. Were they alarmed, or were they communicating their excitement to their fellow bats?
A baby hummingbird hatches. But it has fluffy feathers on its back, looking just like a dangerous caterpillar. Could this be something unusual among hummingbirds?