Encountering vampire bats and snakes in dark caves may sound like the stuff of nightmares, but for Mexican ecologist Rodrigo Medellín it’s just another day at work. As part of the Rolex Perpetual Planet Initiative, he continues to fight multiple threats to bats and is determined to overcome what he believes to be their biggest – human ignorance.

Mexico City

Rodrigo Medellín, a Mexican ecologist, has dedicated over four decades to studying and protecting bats. Working with local communities, students, and farmers, he aims to educate people about the crucial ecological roles bats play, such as pest control, seed dispersal, and pollination. Medellín identifies habitat loss, climate change, and disease as significant threats to bats, but believes that misinformation and negative public perception are their greatest challenges.

Through the Rolex Perpetual Planet Initiative, Medellín documents the ecosystem services provided by bats and strives to correct misconceptions, such as the belief that bats are dangerous or disease-ridden. He emphasizes that bats are vital to biodiversity and human well-being, and calls for greater responsibility in conserving Mexico's rich natural heritage.

Protecting Mexico’s bats

This is an area of tropical forest, but this is the dry season, so you can see that the ecosystem is very, very dry. It's very, very hot. So bats are not going to be very active tonight, but this is going to help us hopefully catch two, maybe three bats. Crossing fingers. Ecologist Rodrigo Medellin has spent more than 40 years studying, educating and campaigning to protect bats in his country. My dedication to bats is very tightly linked to convincing other people that bats are incredibly important for your everyday well-being. On this trip, he's accompanied by two of his own teammates. And a group of local students, educators and farmers, who he aims to inspire through up-close interactions with his favourite winged mammal. This is the moustached bat. This is a very common insectivorous species from all of tropical Mexico, Central America and South America. As you can see, it has really beautiful wings. Globally, bat populations are declining because of a number of threats, including habitat loss, climate change and disease. But Rodrigo believes their biggest problem is a bound reputation. Bats are very mysterious. Many people fear them. Many people attack them, despise them. Where did it come from? Why do they have that negative public image? Very likely it has something to do with an incredible novel called Dracula, written by Bram Stoker in the 1800s. It's the hairy-legged vampire bat. Look at his hairy legs. Can you see? And the eyes are huge. Bats are certainly not more full of diseases than your dog or your cat. So that has been horribly exaggerated and the bats are the losing end of this equation. So what we do many times is just to explain to people that bats are not dangerous. This is a baby nectar-feeding bat. For the moment, it's safe. But there's more than a hundred snakes around it. Any second, one of them can come and grab it. One of my projects is to document ecosystem services provided by bats all around the world. This time, we're surrounded by many thousands of bats that feed on insects, nectar and pollen from flowers and fruit. Those three provide incredible ecosystem services for all of us. In other words, bats help control pests, disperse seeds and pollinate key crops here and across the planet. Mexico is a very lucky country. We are one of the very few mega-diversity countries. That is an incredible privilege but also an amazing responsibility for all of Mexicans. We need to defend our nature, our biodiversity and our bats. They're amazing and they give you benefits every day of our lives.

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