Nicaragua 2016 – Jon Hall Tayra at El Jaguar When Fiona Reid sent me her trip report from Nicaragua in early 2015 I may have let out a small anguished sob: 23 of the 87 species she saw would have been new for me. And then – rubbing salt in the wound - Mike Richardson saw a further 5 bats I hadn’t seen in 3 extra days. Clearly I needed to return to Nicaragua. So in March 2016 I was back at Managua airport, meeting Jose Gabriel for a tailor made 9 day twitch- fest. Jose is Nicaragua’s answer to Crocodile Dundee. He’s worked with Fiona Reid on her trips and is both a bat expert and a great all round naturalist and catcher of mammals. I travelled with him in 2014 and cannot recommend him highly enough. Once again Jose’s buddy and fellow bat researcher Luis came along with us to help set traps. I had sent Jose a long and very ambitious wish list of 40 target species that Fiona had seen on previous trips or that I knew Jose had seen. But I only had 9 days. It was a tall order and word began to reach me that Jose was taking it a bit too seriously, worrying I would be disappointed if we didn’t totally clean up. I tried to reassure him. He didn’t listen. Managua to Santa Theresa: March 19 I got into Managua after a short overnight connection in Guatemala. Beware: Guatemala City airport can be a cluster. Jose and Luis were waiting at the airport and we headed straight to Apoyo Lake to check out a couple of roost trees. Unfortunately – and much to Jose’s surprise – the Pale Spear-nosed Bats were not in their usual, and very reliable, roost, which housed just a few Greater Spear-nosed Bats and a few Short-tailed bats (probably Seba’s). A few hundred metres further on we checked another hollow tree and were successful: my first Tiny Big-eared Bats were at home. Tiny Big-eared Bats Micronycteris minuta Next stop was Masaya Volcano National Park, a place I’d visited on my previous trips but which still held a species I wanted to see: Hairy-legged Vampire Bats. The park was shut. It had closed a month or so earlier because the volcano was active. But that closure was somewhat flexible it seemed. But then a wildfire, started a few days before I visited, added another level of complexity and the park closure was being enforced strictly. Undaunted, Jose brought his dirt bike with him so we could get into the park and visit the bat roost “through the back door”. A rugged ride for a few miles got us to the entrance of the cave. But there were no Vampire Bats (though there were plenty of Seba’s Short-tailed Bats and a few Common Long- tongued Bats). The roost isn’t particularly reliable but Jose had hoped that the closure of the park and lack of disturbance would have helped produce the bats. An early set back but we had plenty of time. Seba's Short-tailed Bats Carollia perspicillata and Common Long-tongued Bat Glossophoga soricina (the yellower animal) After lunch we arrived at Santa Theresa, Jose’s home town. I stayed at Jose’s place which is also home to Nicaragua’s only know roost of Wagner’s Bonneted Bat. Jose had caught one the night before for me and I watched him release it back into the roof. Wagner's Bonneted Bat Eumops glaucinus We netted for bats that evening at both his mother’s and father’s houses. The Molossids in his dad’s roof were obliging and we caught the uncommon - or uncommonly caught at least - Big Crested Mastiff Bat. Big Crested Mastiff Bat Promops centralis and Sinaloan Mastiff Bat, Sinaloan Mastiff Bat (Molossus sinaloe) as well as Little Mastiff Bats. Little Mastiff Bat Molossus molossus At his mother’s property we added Central American Yellow Bat, Central American Yellow Bat Rhogeessa tumida Argentinian Brown Bat, Argentinian Brown Bat Eptesicus furinalis Little Yellow-shouldered Bat and Little Yellow-shouldered Bat Sturnira illium and Bonda Mastiff, all of which were new for me Bonda Mastiff Bat Molossus bondae We also caught Jamaican Fruit-eating Bats and Common Moustached Bats. Eight new species on the first day. Off to a flying start. Rivas: March 20 to 22 Spectral Bat, Rivas Rivas is a 3 hour drive from Santa Theresa. We based ourselves at the small beach community of El Ostional. The Manta Ray Hotel, right on the beach, was basic but very friendly. After a swim and an excellent lunch we drove 30 minutes to some dry (bone dry in the current drought) forest. We checked a couple of roost trees, one of which held a colony of Micronycteris. Our photos were inconclusive: one animal appeared to be M. hirsuta, while the others might be M. schmidtorum (a species Jose had found roosting several times before in the reserve). Hairy Big-eared Bat Micronycteris hirsuta (front) and friends... Another tree held a few Common Vampires and some Carollia bats. A very sick Howler Monkey kept watch and Luis spotted a Variegated Squirrel. Mantled Howler Monkey Alouatta palliata Jose and Luis set four nets that evening around some pools, a spot that had proven very successful during Fiona’s tours. Ostional netting site A Mexican Porcupine emerged from its roost soon after sunset and posed obligingly for a photo. Mexican Hairy Dwarf Porcupine Sphiggurus mexicanus While a Common Opossum played possum Common Opossum Didelphis marsupialis We netted from dusk til gone 11pm and then again from 3am til dawn. Jose was worried about the full moon but bat activity and diversity was high. We caught 15 species: best of which was undoubtedly a Mexican Dog-faced Bat, only the 3rd record for Nicaragua and the second time Jose had seen the species. Mexican dog-faced bat Cynomops mexicanus Other new species for me included Miller's Mastiff Bat, Miller's Mastiff Bat Molossus pretiosus Mexican Funnel-eared Bat (rarely caught) Mexican Funnel-eared Bat Natalus stramineus And a Pygmy Round-eared Bat. Pygmy Round-eared Bat Lophostoma brasiliense We added another two species I had not seen before in the hand: Greater Fishing Bat Greater Fishing Bat Noctilio leporinus An a Tiny Big-eared Bat (that I had seen for the first time on Saturday at Apoyo Lake). Tiny Big-eared Bat Micronycteris minuta The other species comprised more Sturnira Ilium and Rhogeessa tumida and three Pteronotus species: more Parnell's plus the two below. Lesser Moustached Bat Pteronotus personatus Big Naked-backed Bat Pteronotus gymnonotus More Little Mastiff and Argentinian Brown Bats and three more species that were new for this trip - Thomas’s Fruit-eating Bat, Gray Short-tailed Bat and Stripe-headed Round-eared Bat. Thomas’s Fruit-eating Bat Artibeus watsoni Stripe-headed Round-eared Bat Tonatia saurophila ` Gray Short-tailed Bat Carollia subrufa Driving between the forest and El Ostional in the small hours of the morning we saw several Hooded and Striped Hog-nosed Skunks, the latter a key target for me. Striped Hog-nosed Skunk Conepatus semistriatus Hooded Skunk Mephitis macroura Jose and I took a shortish walk that night and added a couple of Kinkajous, and a Northern Tamandua to the night’s haul. Not bad! Kinkajou Potos flavus There were still at least four bats I hoped to see in the area: the very cool Wrinkle-faced Bat, White- throated Round-eared Bat, Niceforo’s Bat and Pale-throated Bat. All rare, but Fiona had caught the former 3 species in 2015 and the latter in Feb 2016. We still had two nights. I also wanted to see a Vampyrum spectrum in the hand (I’d seen one flapping around the canopy tower in Panama in 2014 ), so Jose suggested we should try netting at Escamequita on our second night, as Fiona had scored there on both her trips. But first we wanted to visit some caves, so we spent our second afternoon driving the 2.5 hours to and from El Abuelo caves. Our key targets were Mexican and Woolly Funnel-eared Bats and Long-legged Bats, all of which are hard to net (though we had caught a few Natalus mexicanus the day before). El Abuelo comprises four small caves and access is pretty easy, though we needed a gas mask for the last, ammonia-filled, cave which still stank from the several thousand Parnell’s Moustached Bats that had briefly resided there. The Funnel-eared Bats were easy to see and Jose spotted a couple of the nervous Long-legged Bats , their long legs trailing behind them distinctively in flight. I failed dismally trying to photograph the only one that perched where I could see it. Mexican Funnel-eared Bat Natalus stramineus (top) and Woolly Funnel-eared Bat Natalus lanatus (bottom) Long-legged Bat Macrophyllum macrophyllum The caves also held some Lesser Dog-like Bats and Gray Sac-winged Bats. And a troop of Spider Monkeys and a White-throated Capuchin put in an appearance on the short walk back to the truck. We got to Escamequita about an hour after dark and set a couple of nets around a small pool (the Spectral Bat hotspot) and another in the forest. We stayed all night though I spent most of it asleep in the back of the truck. The batting was steady throughout the night, and we caught 9 species, none of which were new for me, though one was new for the trip - a Great Fruit-eating Bat.