Bats in Focus: Fonseca

05.20.26

By Wendy K. Probst

Trees and moss are great at standing still for the camera. Birds are much trickier due to fast movement, prey awareness, and, well, flight.  

Add to that a dusky or completely dark setting, fast, erratic flight, elusive and hard-to-access locations (think caves, tree hollows, and rainforest canopies) and you’ve got a serious challenge. Getting a superlative photo of a bat is notoriously difficult.  

Enter: a special set of photographers who have honed their lens to the challenge and whose work can transport us through the looking glass into the mysterious and endlessly fascinating world of bats. 

Dr. José Gabriel Martínez-Fonseca is a bat photographer and researcher with over 15 years of experience working with bats. Currently, he is a postdoctoral researcher at Northern Arizona University. In January 2027, he will start his lab at the University of Texas at El Paso in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Program.

How does one become an expert bat paparazzo?  We asked Noturnalia enthusiast Dr. Martínez-Fonseca. 

Story Behind the Photo

A couple of years ago I was invited to setup some camera traps in a few water sources in the dry forest of Nicaragua. The site is very close to a growing and very active city; however, I was very surprised to see that the water sources were being used by a large number of species, including ocelots, margays, coatis, and many many birds. I remembered thinking, too bad these are so small that bats probably can’t use them.
But over the last year, we started seeing that a large number of bats were in fact flying around these ponds. So, I decided to set up my camera and try to record the bats. And what a surprise! Over 12 bat species used a single 2×2 foot pond over a couple of nights, including this Seba’s short-tailed bat. This place gave me some of my favorite photos of bats drinking water. It was fun to see how some individuals completely splash their belly while others are much more graceful, barely touching the surface of the water with their tongues.

Why Bats?

I always enjoyed photography, especially nature and wildlife photography. However, I had a lot of limitations in terms of not only gear, but also where to learn and how to access interesting photo subjects. 

As an undergraduate student, I attended a bat workshop organized by Paso Pacifico (a local NGO) and Bat Conservation International where I realized that bats were the perfect niche for my photography. They are extremely diverse not only in species, but their faces tell us so much about what they eat and how they navigate their environment. 

How do photography and research go hand in hand? 

Photography allows me to document species at each of my survey sites. I have been able to corroborate species IDs and locality information just by going back to the photos I’ve taken. Right now, I am trying to perfect semi-automated bat photography setups as a method to survey bat species in the dry forest of Central America. Knowing the ecology of the bats I might encounter in these scenarios has been crucial in getting useful photographs for both outreach and research. 

Their faces tell us so much about what they eat and how they navigate their environment.

Story Behind the Photo

For many years, the northern ghost bat was a sort of a nemesis species for me. I took three or four trips trying to find one to photograph but without luck. It wasn’t until last year when I got a notification from some friends that two had been seen perching in dry forest of the Nicoya peninsula in Costa Rica when I pretty much dropped everything I was doing and started driving from San Jose (the capital of Costa Rica) to this fairly remote site. After a half an hour hike, there it was!

Where do you do most of your work? 

While most of my work so far has been done in Nicaragua and Arizona, I try to photograph wildlife anywhere I go. It will be really hard to spot me without my camera, a macro lens, a couple of flashes, and my headlamp.  

Any trusted techniques that help to get the ideal bat pic?  

My first recommendation to anyone working with subjects close-up is to do some research on light diffusers. These really help, much more than any new lens or camera would. 

How do you get such candid shots? (those faces!) 

Patience and practice. I think that learning good handling techniques is essential for getting good shots. A happy bat is a good looking one. Since most of my photography is done at the same time I am also conducting research, I cannot spend much time with each animal, so having everything ready and tested beforehand is essential. Normally, I only spend two-to-three minutes with each bat before releasing them. 

Story Behind the Photo

In wildlife photography, you have to be ready for anything. This photo of a Commissaris’s long-tongued bat covered in pollen is one of my favorites and it was taken very early in my career as a bat biologist. The photo illustrates the role of bat species like this one as pollinators better than any other photo I’ve taken so far. My lighting and photo setup have improved a lot but in the 15 years since I took this photo, I’ve not come across another bat covered in pollen like this one.

How did co-authoring Sea Turtles to Sidewinders influence and complement your bat photography?

Well, amphibians and reptiles were actually how I started my interest in biology. Even when working with bats, I remained a herpetology enthusiast so when I moved to Arizona I had to go “herping.” After a few years, I had accumulated enough herp photos that my friend Charles Hood and my wife Erin Westeen (who is a herpetologist) started talking about publishing a book for the general public. We pitched the idea to a publisher, and they liked it, so the rest is history. 

Similarly, Charles and I had a second book on the nature of the Western nights, this one is called Nocturnalia and features insects, herps, and of course bats! 

How did growing up in Nicaragua, with its wealth of bat species, inspire your journey toward bat research? 

Growing up in Nicaragua definitely presented challenges but plenty of opportunities, and I am very thankful for that. I spent my first 27 years living there and I explored as much as I could. I have created a lot of connections with other professionals and communities which have helped me now to conduct my research and conservation work. The huge diversity of bats and other creatures definitely fueled my motivation of continuing exploration and documenting diversity and, to this day, I think I am still far from done. 

Can you tell us a little bit about the bat conservation projects you have helped establish in Nicaragua? 

I really believe that we cannot conserve what we don’t know. So, most of my work has been focused on documenting biodiversity across different bioregions and forest types in the country. We have documented not only new species for the country but also sites that are of extreme importance from a conservation perspective. Additionally, I’ve been studying the impact of landscape changes (e.g., deforestation) on the habitat selection of different bat species and groups. Likewise, we have been working on improving our understanding of the ecology of rare key species like the spectral bat. 

I really believe that we cannot conserve what we don’t know.

In recent years, I have been focusing more on creating local capacity. Bats are a challenging group to study, and I’ve been trying to transmit knowledge and techniques to other biology students in the country. Eventually these students will lead their own research, outreach, and conservation initiatives, which will have a tremendous impact in Nicaragua and other countries in Central America. 

What other species intrigue you? 

I am interested in most animals. It is difficult because different subjects require different gear and mindsets. But in addition to herps, I also really like canids and other medium size mammals. Although being ready for those means I have to walk around with the camera ready and in hand, which is often not possible when I need to carry all my bat catching gear. 

Story Behind the Photo

Some of my favorite photos of wildlife are those of multiple species interacting or sharing space with each other. During a survey in El Abuelo caves in southern Nicaragua, I was able to capture these two greater spear-nosed bats sharing a crevice with thousands of Mexican funnel-eared bats. It is intriguing to think why some of the smallest bats of the continent would just hang out with the second heaviest bat species of the Americas, a known omnivore that occasionally preys on other vertebrates. The variable color of the funnel-eared bats made this photo one of my all-time favorites.
I photographed this group of round-eared bats after tracking a radio-tagged individual with Dr. Carol Chambers in the Pacific coast of Nicaragua. This was probably one of my first photos of bats in their natural environment and it was only a couple months after I started working on my first bat job.
The bats here are inside an active termite mount four or five meters up a tree (with me taking the photo from straight under) and a consequence of this finding is that I have not been able to walk by any other termite mount since without checking if there are bats living on it. I remember that the camera had a hard time focusing in the dark of the hole but I ended up just manually estimating the distance to where the bats were and I was able to get all the animals in focus after a handful of tries. Because of situations like this one, I always recommend spending the time getting to know your gear, knowing how to change settings on the fly, and practicing a lot.

What do you most want people to know about bats? If someone asked you why bats matter, what would you tell them? 

That bats are extremely important not just to the other organisms in the ecosystems, but for us as humans. And our entire life on this planet is tied to the plants and animals that share it with us. Protecting them and treating them with respect is as important for those species as it is for us. 

Panning out, what’s next on the horizon?   

I want to eventually photograph bat species spanning every taxonomic family. While I have been making some progress towards this goal, there are some that will be pretty challenging and might take time. However, this is also what makes it fun to think about. 

What message can bat photography tell people that words just can’t quite capture? 

I think that personal connection is the most important. It is something that cannot be replaced even by the most descriptive text. Pretty much everyone that I have shown a bat photo quickly responds with fascination and admits that they are not what they thought they looked like. Many people think of bats as a single species or type and once they see all those different faces and body shapes, they have a better understanding of bat diversity. This helps them to understand that for example, similarly to birds, they eat and do very different things. 

What’s the best part about being a bat researcher? 

My favorite part is to be able to enjoy nature from a unique perspective. It is definitely a privilege to be able to work this closely with wildlife and to meet the people and experts that study them for years and years. 

Do you have a favorite bat species (so far)? 

I don’t think I have a favorite species. I always say that the best bat species is for me always the next new species I get to photograph.

Come on back to the Bat Pub as we train our lens on more bat photography.  

Wendy K. Probst is the editor of The Bat Pub, and a freelance editor and writer who has devoted her career to working with stellar conservation organizations like Bat Conservation International. She is both driven and anchored by her desire to dream, create, preserve, educate, and empower others.