One of the greatest privileges of working at the Smithsonian is that you get to be on hand when exciting discoveries happen, like finding a new bat species! My friend and fellow bat specialist Ricardo Moratelli has been working on finding new bat species for over 10 years! His focus is on the Myotis genus, one of the most difficult Neotropical genera of bats to understand. So far he as found 6 new species to science, including the recent golden bat species, Myotis midastactus.  

In an article for Smithsonian Science, I ask Ricardo what it is like to be a bat detective finding new species!! 

Bolivia’s golden bat: one of six new species found by the Smithsonian’s bat detective