Costa Rica doesn't have an enormous amount of limestone topography, the usual place for caves, but it has some and there are some pretty cool caves here. However, the cave-loving bats have to use whatever they can find in areas without many caves, and we were able to visit a sea cave with one of the largest cave bat populations in the country. This cave is pretty far from where one would look for caves and an unusual bat cave.
But before the main cave, let me introduce what might be Costa Rica's newest known cave, Cueva Scouser. Warren Roberts found this rather short cave near the main bat cave and we mapped it. Not too much going on inside but it had about 40 bats, with 30 of them being Carollia perspicillata and the others one of the Glossophaga species. Note that these IDs are based on me being able to observe the bats from quite close but not handling and keying them out. Both of these genera of bats have a couple very similar species.
But before the main cave, let me introduce what might be Costa Rica's newest known cave, Cueva Scouser. Warren Roberts found this rather short cave near the main bat cave and we mapped it. Not too much going on inside but it had about 40 bats, with 30 of them being Carollia perspicillata and the others one of the Glossophaga species. Note that these IDs are based on me being able to observe the bats from quite close but not handling and keying them out. Both of these genera of bats have a couple very similar species.
Looking out the cave entrance with Don McFarlane sketching it. Note the bats on the ceiling
Seba's short-tailed bat (Carollia perspicillata) in Cueva Scouser
The big bat cave isn't much of a cave. It is a sea cave in a highwall of rock along the Pacific Ocean and apparently doesn't get enough pounding from the sea to evict the bats. Total length is only about 70 meters of linear passage.
Warren Roberts at the entrance to the bat cave
There is a spit of sand that comes right to the entrance, so no wading or swimming to get to the cave, but...
Getting wet is the only option to enter the cave
After passing the constriction where Don McFarlane was in the last photo, the cave is all walking passage. Still kinda wet though, and the smell quickly gets quite awful. The bats are high up in a fissure at the back end and, well, it is a fairly unpleasant place to be. The floor is 18 inches of...
Knee-deep black salt water and bat poop sludge. Oh the thrill of being under a tropical bat colony
Sorry about the quality of the last photo. It looks great on my computer but lousy as an upload to the blog. And let us not forgets the other animals that love a good bat cave. There are hundreds of giant cockroaches on the floor. I ended up with them up my pants and even in my pockets finding them later. Gotta love those big cockroaches to work in tropical bat caves.
So, back to the bats. There were quite a lot of them in the cave, all up high in the top of a thin fissure. Hard to get a photo showing the colony for a number of reasons, such as their location, the hot and humid cave environment fogging the camera lens, and well let's just say that is was raining bat pee and poo down on me and the camera which is an understatement. But I managed to get a good shot of them.
Here is another shot, taken later in the evening after some had already left the cave for the night, but a wider angle of the roost.
Coming out of the cave I took a photo of my boot. Well, you can't see my boot at it is under some really horrible stinky sludge. I love working with bats but sometimes it can be less than optimal.
Looking down at my boot, which is under some really, amazingly, awful bat poop goop
However all this seems, I do have to say that when coming out of the cave it is quite an attractive site. The sky and the rock make a pretty neat composition.
Warren Roberts at the entrance to a Costa Rican bat cave
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