Honduran White Bats, Costa Rica. 1/9-1/19/2024

Jose and I took an amazing trip to Costa Rica on 1/9 for ten days of intensive birding with Costa Rica Focus which entailed walking up to five miles a day through jungle paths to see the birds. Not much relaxing around the pool, but it was awesome! Our group had 11 other amazing people along with our personal birding guru, Alex, and our illustrious driver, Chicho. Birds were obviously our focus, and I will be blogging about the over 230 species that we saw in nine days soon, but my first post will be about a mammal- the Honduran White Bat. Part of our tour included a stop at Cope's Garden (https://birdingcraft.com/wordpress/2017/09/06/birding-in-costa-rica-with-cope/) hosted by none other than Cope himself whose real name is Jose Perez- just like my husband- an immediate bond.

Cope opened his home and heart to our group and showed us the birds that visit his garden as well as those a short distance away in the jungle (more about those birds later). What thrilled me the most, though, were the Honduran White Bats that he showed us roosting under some big leaves in the jungle. We were allowed to take photos, but only with our iphones so we did not disturb the roosting bats. We all appreciated the caution and respect Cope and Alex gave the bats as they are becoming threatened due to habitat loss. I also appreciated Alex's help taking my photos as we had to get down below the leaves and my knees are not what they used to be!

The Honduran White Bats roost under Heliconia leaves and, as Alex explained, they use their teeth to cut along the rib of the leaf so it collapses into a tent-like structure that they can roost underneath. This does eventually cause the leaf to die so the bats need to move to a new roost eventually. Honduran White Bats primarily eat figs which is why their noses and ears are such a yellow color as the figs contain lutein, a carotenoid pigment similar to what is contained in carrots. My spidey research self loves factoids like that! Pictures below and many more to come. :)