Charles and Jon interview Nils Bouillard, a young Belgian biologist who specializes in bat acoustics. In 2019 Nils set out to spend a year traveling the world to try to record as many bat species as possible. His Big Bat Year, the first of its kind, took him across 6 continents and 400 bat species. Nils talks about what drew him to bats and a Big Bat Year, and the many adventures he has had along the way including that time he caught bats with a Sinaloan drug cartel looking on.

Here is the YouTube trailer.

For more information visit www.mammalwatching.com/podcast

Notes: Nils's new company - Barbastella Echology - is here. And here is an interview about his Big Bat Year. If you are interested in getting to know more about bats, and helping to conserve them, there might be a local bat group in your area. Bat Conservation International also has some useful resources. Wikipedia has information about the Hero Shrew that Charles talked about.

Cover art: Yellow-winged Bat, Nils Bouillard.

Dr Charles Foley is a mammalwatcher and biologist who, together with his wife Lara, spent 30 years studying elephants in Tanzania. They now run the Tanzania Conservation Research Program at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.

Jon Hall set up mammalwatching.com in 2005. Genetically Welsh, spiritually Australian, currently in New York City. He has looked for mammals in over 100 countries.

Produced and edited by Jon Hall.