Coming into Focus

By Lillias Zusi I can’t believe it’s almost time to start our New Mexico journey! We have been working to finalize our research projects all semester, and have been packing and preparing for the summer for the last two weeks....

Poop-pourri

Written by Makenzie Duncan Two days ago, I returned from Auburn, Alabama where I conducted microbiological research involving the bacterial communities hidden in bat poop at Auburn University. Yes. You read that right. For the last two-ish weeks, I accompanied...

18 Things Learned During a Month in the Field

By Morgan Kinniry The Belle Bat team just arrived home from a month of working at our field site in New Mexico. This month was one of the most incredible and fun experiences that I have ever had the pleasure...

Sunday Funday

By Morgan Kinniry After over a week of working hard in the field, Dr. Kloepper decided that the research team deserved a day off. Because it was Sunday, we all headed into town for a day of fun activities that...

First Week on the Ranch

By Morgan Kinniry In the week that we have been at the field site, so many things have happened and I have had the opportunity for so many new experiences. The beautiful New Mexican scenery blew me away when we...

Somewhere Over the Steel Yard

By Morgan Kinniry Today was the inaugural day of the BelleBats summer research project! Dr. Kloepper, Felix and I met at the BatMobile at 4AM South Bend time to get a head start on our long journey. We wanted to...

Poop Soup

By Makenzie Duncan There’s not many ways you can ease into my research, so I’ll just come out and say it: for my senior comprehensive project, I will be making poop soup. Now that I have that out of the...

Bat Beginnings

By Morgan Kinniry If you had told me when I arrived at Saint Mary’s College as a first-year that I would be spending a summer break studying Brazilian-free tailed bats, I would have called you crazy. However, through my time...

Summer 2017 Coming Soon!

The Belle Bats lab is growing! This year we're adding 7 new students, a research tech, and a post-doc. Plans are already underway for our summer work in New Mexico. We aim to hit the road in mid-May and spend...