Over Our Heads

Have you ever heard a bat? You probably haven’t. While bats are all around us, their presence goes practically undetected because of their nocturnal habits and silent (to us, at least) echolocation. We talk with Natural History Museum (NHM) Wildlife Biologist and Community Science Manager Miguel Ordeñana about how bats help start conversations about conservation in neighborhoods all across L.A., and the Gottlieb Native Garden’s naturalist Scott Logan shares his recordings allowing us to go beyond the limits of human hearing to get a sense of what bat calls really sound like.

More about NHM’s Be a Bat Detector Program: https://nhm.org/stories/be-bat-detector 

More about how to attract bats to your backyard (including DIY plans for bat houses): https://www.batcon.org/about-bats/bat-houses/

For more information about programs at the L.A. Zoo, visit lazoo.org

BiodiverCity is made possible with support from The Gottlieb Native Garden. 

Host:
Dr Jake Owens, Director of Conservation, Los Angeles Zoo

Executive Producers:
Susan Gottlieb
Tom Jacobson
Diane Shader Smith
Denise Verret

Producers:
April Merl
Jake Owens

Associate Producer:
Brenda Scott Royce

Original Music:
Micah Smith

Additional contributions from: 
Hannah Beal
Bennett Rea