Chasing bats at dawn

Chasing bats at dawn



“At night in the forest, you soon realize that a high-quality headlamp is your most precious piece of equipment,” says tropical-conservation scientist Ricardo Rocha, shown here in a white T-shirt with a colleague near Ranomafana National Park in eastern Madagascar. Rocha found that bats eat insects classified as agricultural pests and human-disease vectors. But the benefits might be lost along with the bats as Madagascar’s forests are destroyed for cropland. (Nature | 3 min read)