Tomorrow at 7:30 I am meeting one of two Mexican undergraduate students who are accompanying me to my field site in the Mexican state of Puebla. After renting a car, navigating Mexico City we will pick up the second student, load all our materials and drive for about 6 hours through various habitats. The drive starts in the polluted and traffic-heavy streets of Mexico City, transitions to the very densly populated area known as 'Mexico State' and interestingly will pass near to the famous mexican pyramids. Then we drive up in elevation to a coniferous forested area and drop down to a dry desert area that is also the birth-place of corn as we know it! Gradually we will increase in elevation again entering warmer tropical dry forests and eventually cloud forests. Finally we arrive in the area my bats are located that is also home to bannana and coffee farmers!
Because the drive is long we will first secure where we are staying, and ask to use the centrifuge housed at a ranch near (~ 45 mins. away) to the cave and walk to the cave (~half an hour walk across cow pastures) by this time in the dark to put cloths under the bat colonies to collect the food they drop while they eat in the roost!
More news pending our return!
Meanwhile- bats or bust!
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