How does someone end up with the name Merlin? Lucky...named after a wizarding character of the 12th Century that was based on a legendary, forest-dwelling madman...man, that's super cool. Today I got to hear a presentation from someone who really lives up to his name - in a way magical, arguably a madman, without a doubt legendary - Merlin Tuttle.
So, I have spent this weekend at the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory Conference (ATBI) in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. I have been hearing talks on all sorts of subjects which I will describe in later posts. I should send a shout-out here to Discovering Live in America (DLIA) for giving me the fee-waiver that allowed my attendance.
The keynote speaker was Merlin himself, showing off a small part of his collection of jaw-dropping bat photos. He is a bat fanatic, bat photographer, bat researcher, and (here it comes) founder of Bat Conservation International (1982).
http://www.batcon.org
http://www.merlintuttle.com
He talked about all sorts of bat topics, mostly personal stories, or surprising ecological relationships. He had all kinds of stories associated with the Frog-eating Bat (Trachops cirrhosus) of Panama. Particularly of interest to animal behaviorists, he talked about being able to train these bats, IN THE WILD, to capture only individual frogs that he pointed at. Apparently he would put three frogs on a table and direct the bat to the frog that he wanted it to eat! This is amazing! Hardly any animals can accomplish such a feat, certainly none in the wild over the course of only days of training. Note that African Elephants can understand this gesture without any training, but that's elephants...Bats!?
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/09/131010-elephant-pointing-animals-behavior-africa-science/
Through his personal stories about bats and bat conservation, he kept coming back to one central, ethical, pragmatic point - "Don't get caught up in winning battles, focus on winning friendships". He had so many stories of success by establishing partnerships with unlikely partners. For example, by focusing on similarities between him and commercial bat-hunters in American Samoa, they agreed to make bat hunting illegal in that territory until bat populations could rebound - "it's better to conserve bats for future harvest than not conserve bats at all". Also, he worked with a mining group that previously would not return phone calls from local bat conservationists, and was threatening to permanently close off mine shafts that were being used by roosting/hibernating bats, to establish a partnership that would lead the mining group and the local mayor to get the credit for the conservation of the human-created bat habitat. Afterwards, several other mining groups got in on the idea, and a conservation trend was established.
http://www.batcon.org/pdfs/batsmines/BatsandMinesHdbook.pdf
Merlin, thanks for all you have done, are doing, and will do for bats around the world!
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