Bats Lesson Three: Vampire Bats

From Kim Williams-Guillén, our director of conservation science:

There are other smaller caves in Masaya. Park rangers know where they are. I have been to only one, which was a cave with a large colony of vampire bats.  In the video (also from April 2009) if you look carefully you can see some females with babies hanging on their chests.  Many tropical bat species are capable of reproducing throughout the year, although many will have peak reproduction in the rainy season when fruits and insects are most abundant.  To my knowledge, these bats are found in the caves throughout the year. In the dry season, however, bats are easier to spot as they are attracted to pools of water where they come to drink.