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The Batman of Mexico
Update: 2024-10-28
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Listen to bat-lover Rodrigo Medellin share his love for the flying mammals. Known as the Batman of Mexico, his enthusiasm and love for bats make him their greatest defender.
Guest: Rodrigo Medellin, Professor of Ecology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico
Guest: Rodrigo Medellin, Professor of Ecology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico
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Transcript
00:00:00
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:00:02
Constant Wonder Kids is a Constant Wonder Podcast.
00:00:07
Hey, Wonder Kids.
00:00:08
It's Paige.
00:00:09
Happy Halloween.
00:00:11
With the holiday just around the corner, we want to give you an episode about an animal that fits the Halloween spirit.
00:00:18
You've probably been hearing about lots of make-believe creatures like ghosts, and zombies, and mummies.
00:00:24
But what about vampires?
00:00:27
According to stories, vampires are scary guys with pointy teeth who drink blood.
00:00:32
They turn into bats to fly long distances and are afraid of garlic.
00:00:37
While vampires are make-believe, there is such a thing as vampire bats, a type of bat that drinks blood.
00:00:44
Vampire bats sound a little scary to me, but not to everybody.
00:00:50
Way back 50 something years, I had a group of vampire bats living in the family bathroom here in Mexico City.
00:00:59
What?
00:01:00
Vampire bats?
00:01:02
Living in a bathroom?
00:01:04
Worth parental permission.
00:01:06
I have to say, my parents were the most amazing and patient and understanding human beings on Earth.
00:01:14
They were incredible.
00:01:15
I basically took over the bathroom that I shared with my siblings.
00:01:20
And I had seven vampire bats living there.
00:01:24
They were just flying freely in the bathroom.
00:01:28
You might be wondering who would do something as wild as keep seven vampire bats in their bathroom.
00:01:34
This is Rodrigo Medein.
00:01:37
He is a scientist who has spent his whole life studying bats, including the group of vampire bats that he kept in his bathroom.
00:01:45
I had them because I was starting some behavior of stuff when I was like 15 or 16.
00:01:52
And to do that, you have to keep them alive.
00:01:54
To do that, I went to the vet school of the University of Mexico and asked my friends there to let me bleed cows from this vein that the cows have down their valleys.
00:02:07
I brought it back to home.
00:02:09
I took my mom's ice cube trays from the freezer, removed the ice cubes and replaced it with blood,
00:02:19
put it back into the freezer.
00:02:22
And then I would throw one little ice cube of blood per vampire per night.
00:02:30
Maybe not everyone would want to keep bats in their bathroom and we're not recommending that you try this at home.
00:02:36
But Rodrigo is a special person.
00:02:39
He has a unique love for bats and a special understanding of their impact on our ecosystems.
00:02:45
His enthusiasm has earned him the nickname the Batman of Mexico.
00:02:50
While some people might be nervous about bats, Rodrigo helps them see how bats make our world a better place.
00:02:57
You give me any type of audience, whether kindergarteners or senators.
00:03:04
And I will turn them around.
00:03:06
Give them the facts.
00:03:08
I give them the evidence.
00:03:10
I give them the images.
00:03:12
And in a flash, they have become bad defenders.
00:03:17
Now, Rodrigo has been the Batman of Mexico for a long time, ever since he was a kid like you.
00:03:24
You might think that a kid can't be an animal expert, but Rodrigo proved that kids can be excellent scientists.
00:03:31
In Mexico, there was a TV show where contestants had to answer questions about their area of expertise.
00:03:37
When he was only 12, Rodrigo wanted to get on the show to prove his knowledge about animals.
00:03:43
I told my mom I wanted to be asked questions about mammals that I could answer anything about mammals at the time.
00:03:49
There was nobody in Mexico that knew more about African mammals than myself.
00:03:55
I was going crazy for African mammals.
00:03:57
OK.
00:03:58
So my mom, after many pleadings and beggings from my part, she took me to the producers.
00:04:05
The producers said, no, no, no.
00:04:08
This is a show for adult people who have really information in their heads.
00:04:13
And she said, well, as the kid, I question and see if he has any information.
00:04:17
So they pulled out a book.
00:04:19
They started asking questions.
00:04:20
And I started responding, responding, responding.
00:04:23
Pretty soon, they said, well, congratulations.
00:04:25
You're the first kid in the show.
00:04:27
Rodrigo became a TV sensation.
00:04:30
He could answer any question about any animal in Africa.
00:04:34
And soon, he caught people's attention.
00:04:37
Everyone is watching, including the dean of Mexican mammology, Professor Bernardo Villa.
00:04:46
And Professor Villa saw me.
00:04:48
And he said, I need to contact this kid.
00:04:50
He called a station.
00:04:52
Station gave him my home number.
00:04:55
And he called me.
00:04:56
And he invited me.
00:04:57
He said, well, I see that you're interested in mammals.
00:04:59
How about you come to the University of Mexican?
00:05:01
We will take you to the field to see the animals that you really like and enjoy, et cetera.
00:05:06
So that was a dream come true for a 12-year-old like myself.
00:05:10
I started going there and pretty soon some of the professors started taking me to the field with them.
00:05:16
And then about a year later, they finally put the first bat in my hands.
00:05:21
And that sealed my fate.
00:05:24
From the moment he first held a bat, Rodrigo's whole world changed.
00:05:28
He could tell that bats were something special.
00:05:32
I think I have never been as excited as the time that they finally let me hold and handle my first bat.
00:05:43
I had seen them in a few outings, flying up there and the hands of the professors.
00:05:48
But I was really looking forward to the day that they would let me handle one.
00:05:53
So finally, when they let me handle it, my mind was wrapped around how flimsy they looked, but how sturdy they really are, how powerful the wings are,
00:06:05
because they were always fighting, trying to get rid of my hand and fly away.
00:06:11
And also, the different features really capture your attention.
00:06:18
I continued to be that same 12-year-old that I was 50 something years ago.
00:06:25
And even today, right now, if someone walks in that door with a bat in their hands, I am going to forget about this interview, and I'm going to focus on that bat.
00:06:36
As an adult, Rodrigo has studied bats and worked to help keep them safe and protected.
00:06:41
This can be tricky because a lot of people are scared of bats, just like you might be scared of vampires or ghosts or mummies.
00:06:49
But the Batman of Mexico knows that bats are wonderful creatures, and Rodrigo shares three important things that bats do for our ecosystems.
00:06:58
The first is pest control, as in getting rid of bugs that eat food crops that humans need.
00:07:04
Each million bats of this one species destroys 10 tons of insects every night.
00:07:12
I mean, for example, about 1/3 of the corn that is produced in your corn belt is due to these bats defending, protecting that corn from pests.
00:07:25
Rodrigo is saying that if we didn't have bats eating bugs, then the bugs would eat a lot of the corn plants here in the United States.
00:07:32
bats also act as pollinators like beads.
00:07:36
They spread pollen from plant to plant so that the plants can grow.
00:07:39
From 140 species of bats that we have here in Mexico, about 14%, 10% feed on the nectar and pollen of many different plants that are ecologically or economically important.
00:07:54
If you go watch a Western movie and you remember those incredible columnar cactuses, this giant cactus's spectacular plant from the west of your country,
00:08:06
please remember that those cactuses are pollinated by bats.
00:08:11
We wouldn't have them if it was not for the bats.
00:08:15
The save tree, which is the sacred tree for the Maya Indians here in my country, is one of the biggest trees in my country.
00:08:24
And it is pollinated by bats.
00:08:26
Not only do bats act as pollinators, but they also spread plant seeds around when they eat fruits and then they poop out the seeds.
00:08:34
Now that might sound kind of gross, but it's super important.
00:08:39
If you come to Mexico at this time and from now throughout the summer, you are going to find a great variety of fruits that we harvest from our forests, from our deserts,
00:08:50
from our grasslands that are dispersed by bats.
00:08:55
Even the tropical rainforest of all of Latin America depend on bats for their seed dispersal.
00:09:01
It's actually bats that trigger the recovery of the forest.
00:09:06
Once humans have come and chucked the forest, the first plants to grow back are the pioneer plants that are there because bats have been dispersing those seeds for generations.
00:09:19
Once Rodrigo shares everything that bats do to help our ecosystems, he is able to turn people into bat defenders.
00:09:27
This even happened with the mayor of Mexico City when a group of bats moved into her office building.
00:09:33
Her office is in a very old building, downtown Mexico City, very, very old.
00:09:37
And in between the different layers of the roof, that's what the bats are.
00:09:43
You see them coming out, it's about 5,000 bats, so you can see them coming out every evening with a big lights of the cathedral and everything.
00:09:52
And of course, all of the bats are flying around the lights and everything in the bats are zooming in and eating all of those bats.
00:09:59
I told her about how important they are and what connections they have to our everyday lives.
00:10:06
And she's keeping them there for good measure.
00:10:09
As much as Rodrigo might enjoy convincing important politicians to let bats live in their office buildings, his favorite thing to do is help young people get a pair of safety gloves on to hold their first bat,
00:10:21
just like he did when he was a boy.
00:10:23
I've seen it many times, child or not, adult or not.
00:10:28
You show them their first bat and their eyes become, I never expected this.
00:10:34
And that really touches their soul.
00:10:37
It's an internal experience that I really wish everyone could have.
00:10:42
Having it in your hand, looking at the different features, the eyes, the ears, the nose, everything is really amazing.
00:10:50
Touching the skin, touching the wings, it's incredible.
00:10:55
I describe myself as one of the happiest people I know.
00:10:59
And you know, I'm never happier than when I'm in the field with a new group of students.
00:11:06
And I put their first bat in their hands and I look into the rise and I see myself.
00:11:12
I see myself once again over and over.
00:11:15
And the eyes go crazy and they really are into absorbing every little feature of the bat.
00:11:24
Rodrigo's excitement about that started at a young age.
00:11:27
And that enthusiasm has influenced people all over the world for years.
00:11:32
Rodrigo believes that when kids like you are excited about the natural world, you can do big things.
00:11:39
We run bat nights here in Mexico City.
00:11:42
We run sessions with bat detectors that you can attach to your smartphone.
00:11:48
And you just go out in a park or whatever and you see bats flying around.
00:11:54
And the kids are always really excited, really excited to see them flying out there.
00:11:59
But of course, they want to see it up close.
00:12:02
And that is when we sometimes, we set up a misnet and we've got some bats and we show them to children there.
00:12:11
I can see myself again.
00:12:13
Those children will never forget-- I've done this for more than 40 years.
00:12:17
And now some of those children are going back to the University of Mexico, studying biology, and they want to come back and study bats.
00:12:26
This is exactly the kind of influence that I want to promote in the youth.
00:12:33
Being the Batman of Mexico gives Rodrigo the opportunity to make the world a better place for humans and bats alike.
00:12:41
From when he was an animal expert as a kid to his conversations with important leaders today, Rodrigo proves that our enthusiasm can help us achieve big things.
00:12:50
Look up above in the dark of night.
00:13:01
Thousands of bats are taking flight.
00:13:05
They're smiling defender watches them go.
00:13:08
The Batman of Mexico.
00:13:12
A quick word for you, parents.
00:13:23
This is Marcus Smith.
00:13:24
I'm the host of the Constant Wonder Podcast, which is the source of material for Constant Wonder Kids.
00:13:31
We made this episode because Constant Wonder contains a lot of great stuff, kids will love too, but you may be wanting more.
00:13:39
We've got a whole episode devoted to Rodrigo Medellin and his work with bats in Mexico.
00:13:45
If you want to hear the full presentation, go find Constant Wonder wherever you get your podcasts.
00:13:51
It's called The Batman of Mexico and the World.
00:13:55
Season five, episode three.
00:13:57
We actually think that you'll love more than just one episode of our podcast, which is an ongoing quest to find awe and wonder in all nature, human or wild,
00:14:07
vast or small, the kinds of encounters that move us beyond words.
00:14:13
Remember when you had time for wonder?
00:14:16
Well, we think you still do.
00:14:18
Subscribe to Constant Wonder on your favorite platform.
00:14:22
Constant Wonder Kids was produced by Paige Cremperman Darington with sound designed by Mitchell Towsley.
00:14:28
Constant Wonder Kids is a production of BYU Radio.
00:14:32
[MUSIC]
00:14:42