Amy Cooper
Nature: The Bat Man of Mexico
Meet ecologist Rodrigo Medellin, an ecologist dedicating his life to saving bats – and tequila
-
Christina Zeiders
Amy Cooper
Watch Nature: The Bat Man of Mexico Wednesday, August 24 at 8pm on WITF TV or the WITF Livestream through the PBS Video app. WITF Passport members can stream it anytime through the PBS Video app.
Since ecologist Rodrigo Medellin first kept bats in his bathroom as a child, he has dedicated his life to saving them. Now Mexico’s most famous export, tequila, is at stake.
Medellin’s beloved Lesser Long-nosed Bat is crucial to the survival of the liquor – bats are the main pollinators of the agave plant that tequila is made from. To save these bats from extinction, Medellin must track the bats’ migration across Mexico, braving hurricanes, snakes and seas of cockroaches.
Sprinkling harmless UV dust on bats and following their glowing guano across the desert, Medellin devises innovative methods to conserve Mexico’s bat population.
Medellin must also work to counter centuries-old hatred of bats in Mexico because of their association with evil. People would hunt them down and kill them, burning them in their caves. In the early nineties, their population crashed, with the Lesser Long-nosed Bats facing extinction.
Watch Nature‘s The Bat Man of Mexico Wednesday, August 24 at 8pm on WITF TV, or live stream it through the PBS Video app.
WITF Passport members can stream The Bat Man of Mexico, and other Nature documentaries, on-demand through the PBS Video app.
A collection of interviews, photos, and music videos, featuring local musicians who have stopped by the WITF performance studio to share a little discussion and sound. Produced by WITF’s Joe Ulrich.
