I fell in love with bats during a tropical ecology course during my undergraduate degree. While traveling in Costa Rica, we were lucky enough to visit a research center where they were mist-netting bats. I had never seen a bat up close before, and the fruit bats with striped faces, nectar bats with crazy long tongues…the diversity of species was incredible. I came back from that trip and applied to every bat field job I could find. Over twenty years later, and I am still working with bats. I love the variety of projects I have the opportunity to contribute to here at WEST, with so many different bat species and habitats!