EDITOR’S NOTE: Call to Earth is a CNN editorial series committed to reporting on the environmental challenges facing our planet, together with the solutions. Rolex’s Perpetual Planet Initiative has partnered with CNN to drive awareness and education around key sustainability issues and to inspire positive action.
Bats have a bad reputation. Myths, folk tales, and negative media coverage mean people often link these flying mammals to vampires or blame them for disease outbreaks.
But bat populations around the world are in decline, and without them, ecosystems lose key benefits like pest control, pollination and seed dispersal.
Through education, research and advocacy, Rodrigo Medellín, a senior professor of ecology at the University of Mexico, has made it his mission to change the way people see these animals.
Medellín’s fascination with bats began at the age of 13, when he held one in his hands for the first time. “That’s when I decided to dedicate my life to their study and protection,” he says. Since then, caves have become his happy place.
