50 Years of Bat Research

Burton Lim is an Assistant Curator of Mammalogy at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada.  Holding a Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology from the University of Toronto, his research interests are in the biodiversity and evolution of mammals with a particular focus on neotropical bats. Burton is currently the chair of the board of directors of the North American Society for Bat Research.Brock Fenton is a Professor Emeritus at the Department of Biology at Western University.  He received a Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Toronto.  His research involves using bats to explore the interfaces between animal behavior, ecology and evolution. Brock is the author or editor of several books, including Bat Bioacoustics with Springer.Mark Brigham is a Professor of Biology at the Department of Biology, University of Regina. Holding a Ph.D. from York University (1988), his research focuses on the behavior and ecology of bats and nightjars (nocturnal insect-eating birds). He is one of two co-editors of the Canadian Journal of Zoology.Shahroukh Mistry is an Adjunct Professor of biology at California State University Chico and Professor of biology at Butte College.  He received his Ph.D. in ecology from the University of New Mexico.  His latest research project involves acoustic monitoring of bat diversity and activity in northern California.  Shahroukh is currently an associate program director for the North American Society for Bat Research.Allen Kurta is a Professor at the Biology Department, Eastern Michigan University.  He received his Ph.D. from Boston University.  His research interests are in the ecology, behavior, and natural history of mammals, with an emphasis on bats.  Al is past chair of the board of directors of the North American Society for Bat Research.Erin Gillam is an Associate Professor at the Department of Biological Sciences, North Dakota State University.  She received her Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in 2007.  Dr. Gillam’s research focuses on the bioacoustics of bats, including echolocation and social calling. She also has an active research program focused on the conservation of bats in the Northern Great Plains of the United States.Amy Russell is an Associate Professor at the Department of Biology, Grand Valley State University.  She received a Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology from the University of Tennessee.  Her research interests lie at the intersection of multiple fields: where phylogenetic and population genetic approaches can inform questions of recent speciation, where coalescent approaches can help to discriminate among biogeographic hypotheses, and where molecular ecology and simulation-based analyses can discriminate among demographic scenarios.Jorge Ortega is a Professor at the Departamento de Zoología, Instituto Politécnico Nacional in Mexico City.  Holding a Ph.D. in ecology from the Universidad Nacional Autonóma de México, his research interests are in the eco-immunogenetics, behavioral ecology, and molecular biology of bats.  He is the editor of several books, including Sociality in Bats by Springer.

• Chapter 1. Introduction and implementation of harp traps signal a new era in bat research.- Chapter 2. Bats as Hosts of Important Unicellular Endoparasites.- Chapter 3. A global review of phylogeographic studies on bats.- Chapter 4. All the Better to Eat You With: The Legacy of James S. Findley’s Phenetic Approach to Bat Biology.- Chapter 5. Fur, wings, and flowers: development and progress on nectarivorous bat research in the last 50 years.- Chapter 6. The Winter Worries of Bats: Past and Present Perspectives on Winter Habitat and Management of Cave Hibernating Bats.- Chapter 7. Integrating physiological and behavioral traits with ontogeny, phylogenetic history, and survival and fitness to understand heterothermy in bats.- Chapter 8. Molecular biology in the evolution of bats: a historical perspective.- Chapter 9. Molecular biology in the evolution of bats: a historical perspective.- Chapter 10. The evolution of acoustic methods for the study of bats.- Chapter 11. Bats, Bat Flies, and Fungi: Exploring Uncharted Waters.- Chapter 12. Bats and the Ecological and Evolutionary Consequences of Resource Spatio-temporal Predictability (STP).- Chapter 13. There and Back Again:  Homing in Bats Revisited.- Chapter 14. A NASBR history of radiotelemetry–how technology has contributed to advances in bat biology.- Chapter 15. Bats Flying at High Altitudes.- Chapter 16. Contributions of Women and Creating a Culture of Inclusivity at the North American Society for Bat Research.- Chapter 17. Pioneers of bat habitat and resource selection.- Chapter 18. NASBR Origins 1970-2020: From an Informal Gathering to a Scientific Society.- Chapter 19. The Importance of Water Availability to Bats: Climate Warming and Increasing Global Aridity.- Chapter 20. Bats as reservoirs of viral zoonoses.- Chapter 21. Bats in temperate forests: where are the trends in bat populations?.- Chapter 22. How noise affects bats and what it reveals about their biosonar systems.

“This volume will be of interest to mammalogists and anyone else who works with bats … . As a bat researcher who has attended NASBR meetings for 30 years, I found this volume both fascinating and humbling. It will be a delight to seasoned bat biologists but, more importantly, it will provide an inspirational introduction for younger researchers interested in bat biology. It belongs on the bookshelf of anyone who works with bats—or thinks that they might want to.” (Nancy B. Simmons, The Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 97 (3), September, 2022)