Nicté Ordóñez-Garza

Dr. Ordóñez-Garza is a mammalogist and currently the Research Collection Manager at the Biorepository of the Museum of Zoology (UMMZ), part of the Research Museums Center, of the EEB and LSA.

Bat Fact: Some bats have special facial folds or leaf-like shapes that help them with echolocation. They make their navigation sounds through their mouth or nose, and facial structures help them aim and focus the sounds they use to “see” in the dark—kind of like how a satellite dish focuses signals.  (See picture showing a bat with a "noseleaf" --The noseleaf is like a built-in sonar antenna that helps bats “see” with sound.)

Aleana Savage

Ph.D. Student

Research Description: Aleana studies host-symbiont interactions in bats across landscapes, focusing on how urban land use can alter pathogen diversity. Two of her chapters will use museum specimens from multiple states to investigate at pathogen-host networks. Her first chapter focuses on how agricultural practices may be impacting the common vampire bat. During her master's research (advised by Dr. Auteri-an EEB alumna!), she became especially interested in how bats are impacted by land use change when she studied the Gray bat, a cave bat species that started colonizing urban areas when their populations rebounded.

Bat Fact:One of her favorite bat facts include that the Eastern red bat, a bat that is very common in Michigan, often use leaf litter in the winter during torpor (temporary hibernation). Just another reason to leave the leaves this fall!

Evie Tanaka 

Research Description: "I am a research technician with the Michigan Pathogen Biorepository (M-PABI). I collect tissue samples from Michigan bat species–mostly ’big brown bats’ (Eptesicus fuscus)–for the U of M mammal collections and M-PABI infectious disease research. I hope to eventually conduct my own molecular analyses on E. fuscus tissues to investigate bat-borne poxviruses and how they interact with the bat immune system. Overall, bats are a great study system for zoonotic research because they are known to carry and tolerate several families of pathogens, including coronaviruses. They can also be incredibly cute! :)"

Bat Fact: Mother greater sac-winged bats (Saccopteryx bilineata) can communicate with their young bat pups with unique vocalizations in a way that’s similar to how humans talk to babies with “baby talk!” This encourages vocal learning in “babbling” baby bats as they develop and begin to mimic their mother’s distinct vocal sequences. 

Cheyenne Graham,

PhD Candidate, Duffy & Speer Labs

Research Description: Cheyenne Graham is a third-year Ph.D. candidate in both Dr. Kelly Speer and Dr. Meghan Duffy labs, studying hybridization and immunology in Neotropical bats. Her research explores how gene flow and evolutionary history shape immune diversity and pathogen tolerance across tropical bat species. By combining fieldwork in Central America with molecular analyses, she aims to uncover how bats’ unique evolutionary adaptations help them coexist with viruses that are harmful to other animals.

Bat Facts: leaf-nosed bats use their intricate, leaf-shaped noses to help focus sound waves for echolocation, SO COOL! 

Photos: Top left, Artibeus bat in Belize, and right, Artibeus jamaicensis in Panama. Courtesy of Cheyenne Graham. 

Cody Thompson

Mammal Collection Manager & Associate Research Scientist

Research Description: "Currently my colleagues and I are exploring the bat immune system. Although bats are known for their superior ability to suppress viruses, little is known how they accomplish this. To better understand bat immune systems, we are combining fieldwork, museum collections, and molecular and computational techniques to holistically describe the anatomical, genetic, and immunologic features that make the bat immune system unique among mammals."

Bat Facts: Bats are long lived with many species living 20+ years!