Back to field planing! (and milking bats)

Ah it is 'that time' again the birds are singing, the bees are buzzing and the bats are lactating! Yes, considering that the Artibeus were all pregnant (late-stage) during my mid-march visit if I plan on collecting milk it is time once again to schedule a trip to the field for the 'last' milk collection of my dissertation (assuming all going according to plan). This next trip my lab mate will accompany me which will be an added bonus. Now all that said I imagine one question came to mind rather quickly 'wait... milk bats?' Yes... this is actually not as difficult as it sounds. Basically the mother and pup are captured, kept away from each other for a short while (~1 hour) so she accumulates milk which is natural if the mother is away from her baby. (Also the mother and pup are accustomed to being separated from each other for longer periods of time because the baby that cannot fly must stay behind while its mother is out for several hours every night searching for food.) After about an hour, I inject the mother with a small amount of a hormone called oxytocin. Oxytocin increases milk let down (i.e. lactation) so this combined with what is essentially a miniature version of milking a cow allows me to collect milk from the female before letting her and her baby return to their roost. I then upon returning analyze many nutritional components in the milk (dry mass, protein, fat, and carbohydrate (sugar) content).