Goodbye, Auf Wiedersehen, довиждане dovizhdane to our bats
We are home in Austin after 22 hours of travel from Sofia, Bulgaria. Merlin took more than 7,000 photos of 13 European bat species. Of these, the 91 best images were donated for use in conservation and educational programs and materials, providing a strong basis for expanded conservation education in Europe with special emphasis on […]
Appreciation barbecue at the field station
Every field season, it’s a tradition for the field station to hold a barbecue and invite friends and local bat researchers like Teodora Ivanova (holding her baby) who, together with Bjorn Siemers from Germany, started the Tabachka Bat Research Center. Seated two seats back from Teo is one of Bulgaria’s very first bat researchers, Eberhart […]
A Grey big-eared bat (Plecotus austriacus) emerging from a woodpecker hole
These bats frequently roost in woodpecker holes. View more photos in our gallery!
Press conference in Ruse, Bulgaria with Merlin
The Siemer’s Bat Research team held a press conference at the Directorate of Ruse’s Nature Park about what we are doing here with Bulgaria’s bats. The program ran nationally and was reported to have a major impact on the public perception of bats in Bulgaria.
Prey capture success at last!
After several entire nights of near misses, our bats finally performed flawlessly. Both Dani and Toni worked long hours helping these bats overcome their fear so that they would perform naturally catching prey in front of a camera. Having finally gotten the pictures, we’ve released the bats and they are finally back home in their […]
Searching for grasshoppers in the ruins of medieval Cherven
Merlin needed lots of grasshoppers and crickets for the photographs he intended to get of bats catching prey, so he made a wager. He bet us that he could catch more grasshoppers/crickets than the three of us put together. Dani, Toni and I wanted to get out of the field station for the day […]