2021 is the International Year of Caves and Karst, and we are happy to offer a series of (online) seminars about cave science. Join the “The Cave Show” from your own home.
On March 31 (Wednesday), 8:30pm (WET) join us for the webinar ‘Bats: biology, ecology and diversity of the iconic inhabitants of caves’, by Dr. Maria João Pereira, Assistant Professor at the Zoology Department, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
The webinar takes place on YouTube, HERE: https://youtu.be/YUIUAss_x3Q
Bats are the iconic inhabitants of caves and karst! They are the only true flying mammals, and flight has enabled them to occupy almost every terrestrial environment on Earth. During this talk we will discuss several aspects of the extraordinary bat diversity and biology, their socio-economic importance and the services they provide for ecosystems and ultimately to us, humans. We will also discuss their incredible resistance to aging and disease, making them excellent models for research on human health. Unfortunately, a significant percentage of the over 1400 extant bat species is threatened by human actions. Our travel across the bat world will focus mostly on the neotropical region, where we find the most ecologically diverse bat assemblages.
“The Cave Show” is a series of (online) seminars about why are caves important, why it is important to study and protect caves, but also about our passion for caves, which drive much of our research activities. It is included in the celebrations of the International Year of Caves and Karst. Stay tuned to know about the next Cave Show seminars!
Brief CV of Dr. Maria João Pereira:
Dr. Maria João Pereira is an Assistant Professor at the Zoology Department, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, where she coordinates the Bird and Mammal Evolution, Systematics and Ecology Lab, and the Post-Graduate Program in Animal Biology. She holds a PhD in Ecology (2011) and a BSc in Biology (1999) from the Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon, and a MSc in Mathematics Applied to Biological Sciences (2003) from the Technical University of Lisbon. Her research integrates studies in ecology, phylogeography and population genetics, ecology of infectious agents and ecological modelling, to understand ecological and evolutionary patterns of vertebrate diversity. Most of her work is applied to ecosystem and animal conservation and management, always keeping in mind the human dimensions of wildlife, under a logic of sustainability. She is also a research collaborator at the Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies, University of Aveiro, Portugal. She was a member of the Board of Directors of the League for the Protection of Nature, the oldest Portuguese NGO, and represented the environmental NGO at the Portuguese National Council of Sustainable Development for several years. She is a member of the Scientific Council of the Portuguese Federation of Speleology. In 2019 she was elected Vice-President of the Brazilian Bat Research Society – SBEQ.
