The cutest thing in the rain forest

What's the cutest thing at La Selva? I know many who would nominate Steven for the title, and some who would nominate Dennis, but personally I think the cutest thing here is the bats. This week I've had the good fortune to see a bunch of particularly cute ones.

On Wednesday evening, the German bat researchers caught a leaf-nosed bat about the size of my hand, with a little baby clinging to it. It was a ball of brown fluff all except for its bright pink nose and its itty bitty wings. The babies in a lot of bat species here can weigh up to a third of the mother's body weight. ("That's like giving birth to a turkey!" Erin said. For me, it would have to be an extraordinarily large turkey, like the one my family got for Thanksgiving one year from a farmer in the next town. It was so large we had to slice it in half with a crosscut saw before we could fit it in the oven. I have a whole new respect for bats.)

On Friday I got to see an even cuter bunch of bats: Ectophylla alba, the white tent-making bats. They produce their own shelters by gnawing along the midvein of a Heliconia leaf. Every few days, when the leaf wears out, they move to a new roost. I check for bats every time I see a folded-down leaf, but I've only found them twice. Erin's excellent field assistant Mauricio located these guys while he was doing a survey of understory herbs. He guided a bunch of us out there around noon. It was the best lunch break I've had in a long time.