Fringe-lipped Bat - Trachops cirrhosus
Chan Chich is located in northwestern Belize near the Guatemalan border. The lodge is built among the ruins of a Mayan city, including a number of temples and several large pyramids containing the tombs of various rulers.
Some years ago, before Chan Chich was established, looters dug deep perpendicular trenches into the pyramids to reach the burial chambers. The trenches and burial rooms remain, the contents are now gone, detached from cultural context and scattered among private collections around the world.
Armed with a flashlight and a LEDGO LED panel attached to the flash hotshoe on my camera, I carefully entered the deepest of the tombs in search of bats to photograph. As I descended the narrow passage I could make out a number of bats clinging to the back wall. Turning to my head I looked into a side chamber opening to my right. It was full of bats. Startled by the light a number of them flew out brushing close enough that I could feel the air fanned on my face by their flight.
I crouched down and slowly moved forward, taking picture after picture. This photograph was taken from directly below a group of Fringe-lipped Bats - Trachops cirrhosis - clinging to the ceiling above me.
Fringe-lipped Bat - Trachops cirrhosus
Chan Chich is located in northwestern Belize near the Guatemalan border. The lodge is built among the ruins of a Mayan city, including a number of temples and several large pyramids containing the tombs of various rulers.
Some years ago, before Chan Chich was established, looters dug deep perpendicular trenches into the pyramids to reach the burial chambers. The trenches and burial rooms remain, the contents are now gone, detached from cultural context and scattered among private collections around the world.
Armed with a flashlight and a LEDGO LED panel attached to the flash hotshoe on my camera, I carefully entered the deepest of the tombs in search of bats to photograph. As I descended the narrow passage I could make out a number of bats clinging to the back wall. Turning to my head I looked into a side chamber opening to my right. It was full of bats. Startled by the light a number of them flew out brushing close enough that I could feel the air fanned on my face by their flight.
I crouched down and slowly moved forward, taking picture after picture. This photograph was taken from directly below a group of Fringe-lipped Bats - Trachops cirrhosis - clinging to the ceiling above me.