Dr. Dana Green is a bat expert who is known online as The Eyepatch Biologist. As a science communicator, a pun connoisseur, and a woman who knows a good joke when it’s staring her in the face, she says of herself, “What a wonderful bat advocate to go half blind.”

In Dana’s interview with Sean, she tells us about her master’s degree studying grasshopper mice (predatory, solitary, highly aggressive mice that howl) and her PhD in bat ecology, which she completed at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan. We learn about echolocation and other bat chatter, fact check Hank Green’s viral video (Do we know where bats go in winter? Not entirely…) and learn about bat species in Canada. We assuage some fears about bats carrying disease, explore the challenges of tracking bat migration, exclaim over the mysteries of bat reproduction, and celebrate their benefits in the garden. The episode is as wide-ranging as these fascinating mammals are, but we spend time especially on the lives of hoary bats, pallid bats, New Zealand’s flightless bats, and the Mexican free-tailed bat…or at least their smell! 

Craving even more bat facts? Then you’re in luck! Part two of this interview will be posted next week. 

Learn More

Dana’s website: https://www.danagreeneco.com/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theeyepatchbiologist

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eyepatchbiologist/

Scientists and Communicators

Sean and Dana drop a lot of names in this conversation. Here are the experts they mention: 

• Hank Green, science communicator: https://hankgreen.com/ 


• Dr. Brock Fenton, bat researcher and mentor of bat researchers: https://letstalkscience.ca/careers/brock-fenton


• Mark Brigham, Dana’s supervisor at the University of Regina: https://www.uregina.ca/science/biology/directory/academic-staff-and-adjuncts/mark-brigham.html  


• Robert Barclay, bat researcher: https://profiles.ucalgary.ca/robert-barclay 


• Ted Weller, migratory hoary bat researcher: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Theodore-Weller 


• Sophiane, aka @honkifurhoary, science communicator: https://www.instagram.com/honkifurhoary/

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Citations

Bat Reproduction Fact Check

H, T. (2020, October 16). BAT Reproduction – Illinois BAT Conservation program. https://www.illinoisbats.org/bat-reproduction   

Timestamps

00:12 Introducing Dr. Dana Green

01:36 Bats, Grasshopper Mice, and Going Feral: Dana’s Education Journey

04:55 Sound Bite: Grasshopper Mouse

05:01 Can You Hear Echolocation? 

05:30 Sound Bite: Echolocation

07:25 Dana’s Retinal Detachment

15:40 Dana Caused Sean’s First TikTok Violation

16:53 Bat Species in Canada

19:00 The Bat Research Community

21:30 Do We Know Where Bats Go In Winter?

25:53 Bats’ Unique Relationship with Disease

28:47 Tangent: Funding Rant

31:00 Back to Bat Tracking

34:45 Ted Weller, Bat Pregnancy, and Pups

41:36 The Pallid Bat, Potential Pollinator and Centipede Eater

44:00 Bats as Garden Friends

47:33 Outdoor Cats are Ecological Disasters

51:42 Bats’ Horrendous Smell

53:46 Conclusion and Contact Us