Holy biodiversity! Bat biologist Kathrin Barboza discusses protecting Bolivia's nocturnal flyers — Assembly

Bats are critical pillars of our ecosystem. This biologist is making sure they’ll be around for years to come.

Examining teeth, mapping species, identifying bioacoustics, tagging wings — when it comes to bats, biologist Kathrin Barboza Marquez has done it all. Yet, her career in bat conservation started by chance.

In 2003, Kathrin was studying biology with a focus on conservation at the Universidad Mayor de San Simón in Cochabamba, Bolivia. As punishment for losing a bet with friends, she had to attend a lecture on bats by Dr. Luis Aguirre, a visiting professor and bat expert. Little did Kathrin know that it would change the course of her life and career.

“I went and was immediately hooked by everything I heard,” she remembers with a smile. “I didn’t know how important they [bats] were, that there were so many variations, that they ate so many things.”

With over 1,300 species, bats make up one-fifth of all mammals. Over 300 types of fruit, including bananas, mangoes and avocados, depend on bats for pollination. “Generally, people have negative perceptions about bats: that they are bad luck, that they suck blood, that they’re a menace, but that’s not true,” Kathrin shares. Bats are important ecological actors, playing a role in seed dispersal, plant pollination and natural insect pest controllers.

After attending the lecture, Kathrin decided to continue on the conservation track, but with a focus on bats instead. As a student, she researched the reproductive patterns of fruit bats for her thesis and worked with her mentor Aideé Vargas to conduct a year-long expedition to track down the Nariz de Espada (the sword-nosed bat), a species believed to have become extinct in Bolivia since the early 1930s.

Stationed in caves near Bolivia’s border with Brazil (a location known to be a hub for drug traffickers), Kathrin remembers the toll the trip took on her physically, mentally and emotionally. “It was the first time that I seriously asked myself if all of this was worth it,” she recalls. All of her uncertainty melted away, however, when she laid eyes on the Nariz de Espada. “Our finding meant that, at least in Bolivia, the species was not extinct and that we could begin work on its conservation. The feeling was incredible and overwhelming,” she says.

Now with over a decade of experience under her belt, Kathrin has taught bat bioacoustic courses across Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Peru, Spain and Uruguay. She currently works as an associate investigator of mammalogy, the study of mammals, at the Natural History Museum Alcide d’Orbigny. She also teaches courses on fieldwork, flora and fauna inventories and biodiversity at the environmental education startup, Natural Zone.

Institutions around the world continue to recognise Kathrin’s research on bats. In 2012, she received the L’Oréal and UNESCO Fellowship for Women in Science, making her the first Bolivian woman to receive the accolade. “I remember crying with happiness and pride for being able to represent Bolivia at an event of that magnitude because we know that science in Latin America is not valued. So, for me, this reinforced how important it was to champion girls and women in science back in my country and in Latin America.” The following year, the BBC listed Kathrin as one the Top 10 Latin American Women in Science.

“Being a woman in science is really a privilege, especially in my country,” Kathrin shares. “I have had some cases of machismo and I realised how often we normalise it or don’t speak up for ourselves. There is not only discrimination for being a female scientist but also for being young. My merit and the value of my work were questioned several times because I am a young woman scientist.”

“My merit and the value of my work were questioned several times because I am a young woman scientist.”

— Kathrin Barboza

To see more young women in the conservation field, Kathin suggests that schools and universities “create spaces for young girls to engage in conversations with women in the field.” For girls interested in pursuing careers as conservationists, Kathrin advises studying biology at university.

In the fall of 2019, fires ravaged over 4.2 million acres of land in Bolivia, including the Chiquitano forest, a unique ecoregion where Kathrin worked for six years. From her current home in La Paz, Kathrin worked to assist the devastated lands, which included educating the public about the fires and their effects on Bolivian nature and wildlife. “We are gathering information so we can publish as much as possible about the problem and make people aware so we can unite in the efforts to save what’s left,” she shares.

Kathrin knows that there’s a lot of work ahead in the fight to protect Bolivia’s biodiversity and bats, but through her research and advocacy, she is making progress every day for the country’s natural habitats and mammals, particularly her two-taloned friends.