Guatemala’s Sierra de las Minas, a mountain range protected by a biosphere reserve, provides a refuge for wildlife in cloud forests facing pressure from land clearing, resource extraction and fire. Understanding which species live there helps scientists explain the region’s ecological value and the need to conserve it.
In July 2025, the Spanish-language bureau Mongabay Latam reported on bat records that added to that knowledge. Guatemalan journalist Kristhal Figueroa, a fellow in Mongabay’s Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellowship, spoke with scientists and conservationists about findings from the reserve, including Guatemala’s first record of the long-legged myotis (Myotis volans) and its third record of the southwestern myotis (Myotis auriculus), two species of bat previously documented farther north.
The findings, documented in the scientific journal Check List, concerned species already known elsewhere. The record of long-legged myotis extended its known range at least 910 kilometers (565 miles) south and brought the number of bat species recorded in Guatemala to 105. Researchers found the bats in 2024 while surveying the Sierra de las Minas.
The reporting connected these findings to the conditions that make the cloud forest a suitable habitat. Temperature, moisture and vegetation resemble those of temperate forests farther north. The bats’ presence therefore reflects their natural distribution, rather than establishing that they recently migrated to Guatemala. The article also examined threats to the reserve and scientists’ call for further research.
Impact
Following publication, Luis Trujillo Sosa, head of science at Guatemalan nonprofit conservation organization Defenders of Nature Foundation, and a biologist featured in the story, told Figueroa that the news coverage opened opportunities to collaborate with other researchers and attracted interest from other media outlets seeking to share his work.
“The experience of Mongabay’s report on the new bat records in Guatemala was extremely positive,” he said. “I think the text clearly reflected the importance of these records, both biogeographically and ecologically, as well as their implications for an ecosystem as threatened as the Sierra de las Minas.”
By bringing the bat discoveries beyond a scientific journal, Mongabay helped researchers share their work and opened opportunities for collaboration, drawing wider attention to the cloud forest that makes these species’ presence in Guatemala possible.
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Banner image: The record of Myotis volans brings the number of bat species recorded in Guatemala to 105. Photo courtesy of Luis Trujillo.