Dream Science Trips | Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge

Hi! I'm Mary Lou Hedberg and I was so lucky to win the chance to take my dream science trip! I flew to New Mexico’s Carlsbad Caverns National Park, a home of my favorite species: bats!
Driving up to the cave on my first day, we stopped to hike in the Chihuahuan Desert. It's hard to believe that this dry area was once a giant reef in the ocean. My brother, Mason, and I hiked and examined cacti, rocks, lizards, and millipedes.
Next I met Ranger Dave Thomas of the National Park Service. He gave me my exciting itinerary for the week and explained how the cave was formed—not by running water, but by sulfuric acid!
We walked down a spiraling path into the cave—it was dark and cool and so different from the bright sun, blue sky, and hot air hundreds of feet above us.
Seven hundred and fifty feet down and one-and-a-half hours later, we entered the "Big Room." It is the largest cave chamber in the country!
The Big Room is full of amazing formations, or speleothems: stalactites, stalagmites, popcorn, draperies, and bacon. The names are great!
At night, we went to the bat flight presentation in the amphitheater in front of the cave. The National Park Service is great about protecting and conserving important American sites while encouraging the public to enjoy them. So we wouldn’t disturb the bats, we had to be very quiet and were not allowed to use cameras. All my "bat shots" are compliments of the NPS.
Photo Couresy of NPS

The bat emergence was amazing! The bats flew out of the cave in a large, continuous cloud for a half hour, swooping around in a vortex to gain speed.
Photo Couresy of NPS

Then they headed off toward a nearby lake to drink before going bug hunting. Bats are really important natural pollinators and pest controllers.
The next day, my brother and I met Dr. Nick Hristov, who I would be working with during my week here. He is in the middle of a three-year project, conducting a bat census with infrared imaging and a novel computer program developed at Boston University (BU).
I helped Nick set up his infrared camera equipment. We recorded the bats as they emerged from the cave so they could be counted later.
The infrared camera captures images of the bats just after the vortex breaks up and the bats travel in a straight line. The next day, I watched Nick use BU's computer program to census the bats. He estimated that 175,000 bats had flown out of the cave!
One night, we entered the cave with Nick’s camera and sat near a small cave pool where Nick suspected bats may stop to have a drink before flying out of the cave.
Photo Couresy of NPS

We could see the bats heading out to feed from inside the cave. It was awesome!
One day, we got a private tour of a "wild cave" with Rangers Paula and Tom. It was a forty-five-minute hike through the desert to this cave, and there were no well-defined paths or electric lights inside. It was beautiful!
Paula and Tom showed us bat guano, or excrement, that was hundreds of years old. There were bat bones sticking out of it!
And, again we saw some great cave formations!
This one looks like something different to everyone!
That night Nick, his colleague Louise, and I headed deep into the roosting section of the cave wearing headlamps, respirators, boots, and bandanas.
Photo Couresy of NPS

We walked knee-deep over huge mounds of guano and heard lots of bats squeaking. Using the infrared camera, we could see that a whole section of the roof was covered with bats.
The next morning I got up at 3:30 a.m. to meet Nick at the cave entrance to hear and see the bats return. They came whizzing back towards the cave at sixty miles per hour with their wings pulled tight against them like jetfighters. Then, as they got closer, they extended their wings to slow down, which made a surprisingly loud sound! There was a gorgeous sunrise!
Later in the morning, we explored Lower Cave—the toughest tour yet. We had to enter by using a rope and ladders.
A few tight squeezes! It was a taste of real caving!
Late in the evening, while collecting Nick’s equipment, a three-and-a-half-foot Diamond-backed rattlesnake rattled at us. It was surprising and scary, but also incredible! We stayed away from that area the rest of the night.
On our last day, we explored Left Hand Tunnel with only the light of a lantern, just like the early explorers did. It was a completely different perspective of the cave.
I am really going to miss the people, the place, and—of course—the bats. This experience was more than I had ever imagined it would be—a real dream science trip come true!