Research Training Program

During the last 500 years, 10 species of bats have gone extinct. Four of these 10 species formed part of the fauna of Puerto Rico. This extinction has had many causes such as urbanization, predation and senseless killing by humans due partly to their bad image. For researchers, it has been difficult to study the species without harming them. This is because the two ways that they can identify or examine the species is through the sacrifice of the individual or the use of anesthesia, such as chloroform. For those reasons, a field guide is being published that is going to help scientists conducting research and students who are interested in the ecology and behavior of bats. This will give researchers and students, alike, the opportunity to study these living bats in the field, as opposed to just assessing preserved specimens in the museum setting. The 13 species of bats of Puerto Rico that were studied were very carefully examined.The morphological aspects were measured and observed. Color description and comparisons were made between the dry and the wet collection. After this, a key of the characteristics was made that illustrates how each of the species differs from the others, so that way if you have an individual, you can search for his features in the field guide and find the species that you have.