Capturing a Carnivorous Bat on Camera | National Geographic

[Music] When National Geographic asked me to photograph this bat story, I was really excited because it was an opportunity to work with some really interesting scientists, like Rodrigo.

I get to work with the species I've never seen before. Very little has been studied about these bats, and so I was really interested in figuring out how I can show these bats' predatory behavior in captivity or in the wild.

So, I'm working on getting this flight cage set up for tonight. I, along with Rodrigo, are catching a Carollia tawny, or the car top terrace, for us to film and record inside this flight cage.

What we've got is camera flashes, infrared lights, continuous lights, bat detectors. All of this stuff is to try to catch a Carollia in the action of hunting prey. They've actually brought lab mice from the University of Mexico, and this is all to try to better understand how this bat hunts in the wild.

How does a bat approach? How does a bat kill the prey? The idea here is to recreate the environment outside. So, when the mouse is moving around, it's going to be creating some rustling sounds, and we think that's what the bat is using to locate the prey.

There's one photograph in particular that encapsulates this story I'm trying to show: the temple and the bat, where you can see and identify both things. I've got one light that's going to light the bat from below, and by lighting it from below, I can actually project its shadow like a bat signal against the wall of the temple.

Now, from the very beginning, I've been studying how these bats leave their roost. I set up infrared video cameras, and I've watched them every night. It turns out for that first few meters as they leave, they all follow the same path.

So, I've got my sensor in place, I've got my lights in place, now we just gotta wait. You know, these scientists are just getting started trying to understand these bats, and so to be able to come here and actually contribute something to understanding these animals through photography, that's really why I do what I do. You [Music]