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Meet our Honorary Year of the Bat Ambassadors!

The Year of the Bat team is delighted to have 3 dedicated and renowned bat experts supporting our campaign. We are looking forward to collaborating and cooperating with them on dynamic outreach activities and projects around the globe. Together, we hope to make Year of the Bat one of the most successful species awareness-raising campaigns in recent history.

Dr. Merlin Tuttle is an ecologist, award-winning wildlife photographer and leading conservationist who has studied bats and championed their preservation for more than 50 years. The founder of Bat Conservation International (est. 1982), he is known worldwide through his scientific discoveries, media appearances, popular articles and photographs. Dr. Tuttle’s award-winning photographs and globally-aired television specials - including the documentary The Secret World of Bats, which spotlighted Tuttle’s conservation efforts and was broadcast in more than 100 countries -have helped bring bats into the public eye.

Dr. Rodrigo A. Medellín has studied and worked on the ecology and conservation of mammals in Mexico for over 30 years. He advises the Mexican government on wildlife issues, having previously served as head of the Mexican Government’s Wildlife Department (1995-96). Dr. Medellín founded and directs the 15-year old program for the Conservation of Bats of Mexico, is Vice-Chair of the CITES Animals Committee and is a member of the United Nations special Task Force on Environmental Sustainability. Dr. Medellín is also Senior Professor of Ecology at the Institute of Ecology, University of Mexico.

Dr. Paul Racey is Regius Professor of Natural History (Emeritus) at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. He is the founding chairman of the United Kingdom's Bat Conservation Trust and, along with Dr. Medellín, joint chair of the Chiroptera Specialist Group of IUCN's Species Survival Commission. Named by BBC Wildlife as one of 50 “Conservation Heroes” (2008), Dr. Racey has an impressive catalogue of published research on bats. He continues to conduct new research and publish prolifically.

To learn more about our ambassadors’ interests and achievements, visit their page >

Partnerships and Support

In the short time since the Year of the Bat launch, we have received literally hundreds of excited responses from individuals, local organizations, non-governmental organizations and governmental institutions or divisions from all over the world. Thousands more have accessed the Year of the Bat website.

Collaboration with our founding Year of the Bat partners continues to grow. The Year of the Bat has also added a growing number of enthusiastic “Regional Partners” to our worldwide partnership network. We are so pleased with the steady stream of support from individuals, organizations and government bodies – and look forward to welcoming new partners from diverse countries, as well as new government and corporate sponsors, on board the campaign soon.

We’d like to thank the Ministries of the Environment of France and Germany, and the Parties to the EUROBATS Agreement, for their financial contributions to the campaign and their strong support of the Year of the Bat initiative.

Importantly, the general public’s interest, from all age groups and 92 countries around the world, has given a fantastic boost to the campaign. Your encouraging words and ideas are also an invaluable incentive for the Year of the Bat’s continued expansion and success.

Please know that our campaign team reads every email you send. To manage the demand for Year of the Bat, we have recently added new staff. If you’ve requested specific information or have inquired about partnership and have not yet received a personal reply from us, we will be contacting you in the next few weeks!

To learn more about Year of the Bat partnership opportunities, please click here >

Hot Topic! Bats and Eco-System Services

The concept that biodiversity brings us economic benefits and bolsters our global well-being is a new hot topic among conservationists and many economists. In addition to valuing nature for its intrinsic worth, putting hard figures on previously undervalued or mainly unvalued services such as eco-tourism, insect control, pollination, seed dispersal, eco-system maintenance and even biomimicry can help us assess our national assets and “common goods” more clearly, while giving conservation efforts a real boost. Though it may not be easy to “value the invaluable,” if we don’t put a price on nature, we could lose it.

The UNEP-hosted study The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) is making the link between nature and economic value explicit. The Year of the Bat campaign recently teamed up with TEEB’s Bonn-based communications team to highlight how bats are a unique and significant contributor to eco-system services. To learn more, check out the new article, “Bats as Invaluable Allies,” written by Year of the Bat Ambassador Merlin Tuttle, on TEEB’s website.

Become a fan! Join Year of the Bat on Facebook

Year of the Bat has been active on Facebook since November 2010! If you and ⁄ or your organization are active on Facebook, take a moment right now to “like” our page.

For up-to-the minute Year of the Bat news, event links and bat-related media coverage, get involved in our Facebook community. We will soon be adding video, as well as discussion groups where bat researchers can share project info and exchange ideas.

We look forward to your active participation, feedback and contributions in creating a dynamic internet forum for Year of the Bat enthusiasts!

Educational and Media Outreach

The UNEP-CMS/EUROBATS Year of the Bat team considers educational and media outreach to be key elements of our campaign to promote a brighter image of bats. Education and media coverage are also avenues to encourage curiosity about bats in young and old alike, more accurate public knowledge of bats and increased bat conservation efforts.

At Year of the Bat headquarters, interview requests are picking up speed. To read and hear the latest media reports on Year of the Bat, click here and here. We also encourage you to work with your local media outlets and contacts to get accurate stories, editorials and broadcasts about bats into the news. When planning a “Bat Night” or Year of the Bat event, give a shout to your local paper or radio station. And send us your media reports, so we can publicize them further.

In the educational arena, Year of the Bat has begun collaborating with the United States Forest Service on a very exciting online educational and outreach project focused on bats. The bilingual project, led by the U.S. Forest Service, will launch in autumn 2011 and will offer free webcasts, lesson plans and an array of other educational resources in English and Spanish to teachers, students and land management professionals.

The U.S. Forest Service has a great track record in implementing similar projects and it is envisioned that the bat project will reach hundreds of thousands of school children, educators and land managers in the U.S. alone. The Year of the Bat will provide international and substantive assistance to this fantastic endeavour, and will help extend the reach of the project to Latin America, as well as other English-speaking countries. Please stay tuned to our website, Facebook page and blog for more details on this project soon!

Make a difference: Give back to bats

The Year of the Bat needs your help to give bats a fresh image and make bat conservation a truly global cause.

Bats help replenish our forests and sustain the delicate balance of other important eco-systems from deserts to wetlands. Through insect control, bats reduce crop damage, slow down the spread of disease and reduce or eliminate the need for costly unnatural pesticides around the world. They also bring us delicious fruits through their pollination services. Many foods, medicines and other products are created thanks to bats.

Take the time today to learn more about bats, educate others about bats’ contributions to our eco-systems or continue your active involvement in bat conservation and research. Once you get to know these “incredibly fascinating, delightfully likeable masters of our night skies,” you may realize that bats are rather not bad... in fact, bats are breathtaking, brilliant and beautiful!