I am thrilled to share our work in the final issue of National Geographic Magazine—Georgia for 2024. In this article, I showcase the inspiring journey of the Ilias State University of Georgia researchers team as they successfully located and captured the greater noctule bat (Nyctalus lasiopterus), a species that has eluded Georgian scientists since 1971!
Text by: Bogdana Vashchenko Photography by: Viktor Lyagushkin
While bats are still sleeping here in Georgia, On March 16th, I lectured at the Tbilisi Zoo Educational Center on Bats in the World and Georgia. Ioseb Natradze, an Assistant researcher at the Laboratory of Vertebrate Animals of the Institute of Zoology of the llia State University of Georgia, and I talked about how incredible these creatures are, their Super Skills, and their importance to ecosystems.
The students were super interested in all sorts of things, like what bats eat, their social structure, how they give birth, and how they fly. We only left the Educational Center because the room was needed for the following class.
In our next discussion, we will focus on studying bats’ contribution to Tbilisi’s sound environment with the help of researchers from the Ilia State University. I want to thank Irma Bochorishvili for providing us with this fantastic opportunity.
The Editor-In-Cheif traditional foreword in the January 2024 issue of National Geographic Magazine – Georgia is almost all about bats and our cover feature story, published in. Text: Bohdana Vashchenko, photography: Viktor Lyagushkin.
Thank you, Ketevan Chumburidze, for your help and work! It was a great pleasure to collaborate with you and all the team on the story.
The project was funded by the National Geographic Society.
One more of our bats flies between rows of vines on the pages of the December 2023 issue of National Geographic Magazine – Georgia, hunting insect pests. The issue collected the best pictures of the year, and I am proud to say the photograph from our project, Bats of Georgia, is included. Congratulations to the photographer, Viktor Lyagushkin.
Bat portraits by Viktor Lyagushkin and their hunting sounds are nicely collected in the short video created by National Geographic Magazine — Georgia. The photographs were produced during my NGS-funded Bats of Georgia project.
Look what I have! I am holding something very special! My bat cover feature story, Night Shift, is inside National Geographic Magazine — Georgia!
It’s all over: terrifying moments when nothing worked, when we couldn’t find bat colonies and perform photo shooting or the animals escaped and stultified our efforts; moments full of joy when we got more than expected; hot summer fieldwork when we dreamed the night would come quickly and bring some coolness.
Stunning bat photographs by Viktor Lyagushkin (Vitya, CONGRATULATIONS!), ten spreads, 3,000 words, 67 days in the field.
It is winter here in Georgia, and our wingy models are hibernating. Sleep well, my bats; we did a great job!
Many thanks to the editorial team of National Geographic Magazine – Georgia for the fantastic work and great layout and your hints and ideas! Ruso and Katie, you are the best! Thank you, chiropterologists Ioseb (Soso) Natradze, Giorgi Sheklashvili, Alexander Bukhnikashvili, and Andrey Kandaurov, for your patience, friendly support, and knowledge; it was so lovely to work with you! Many thanks to Valeri Barbaqadze for your expertise in caves and to Amiran and Irina Tkabladze for your kindness and hospitality.
That’s me, Bohdana Vashchenko, lecturing about bats for the 4th-grade students of Ilia State University (Tbilisi) ecotourism faculty on Wednesday, 20 December, 2023. We had a great conversation about the extraordinary abilities of bats and their important role in Georgia’s ecosystems. We also busted some common myths about these fascinating creatures. We also discussed how bats contribute to agroecosystems and how to start bat ecotourism in Georgia.
Thank you, Natalia Bakhtadze Engländer and Ilia University, for this possibility! Thank you, Alexander Bukhnikashvili and Sofo, for coming and sharing your experience, brilliant humor, and knowledge of bats.
I lectured at Akaki Tsereteli State University (Kutaisi, Georgia) on Monday, 25 November 2023. The talk was attended by students from the geography, biology, and ecology faculties in the 1st to 4th courses. National Geographic photographer @viktor_lyagushkin and I spoke at length about our project, funded by the National Geographic Society, which was dedicated to the bats of Georgia. We discussed bats’ unique abilities and the role of bats in Georgia’s ecosystems and debunked some of the myths surrounding them. We also talked about the importance of storytelling and community engagement.
I had the great pleasure of having such an interested and open-minded audience. I appreciate their enthusiasm and engagement. I want to express my gratitude to Irakli Julakidze for making this lecture possible and for his kind assistance during the event.
My and Viktor’s article about Alexei Molchanov’s record, which he set for the Guinness Book this spring on Lake Baikal. The goal of the record was to draw attention to the ecological problems of the lake.
The entire May issue of National Geographic (Russia) is dedicated to the seas and oceans, and it’s great that we succeeded to become a part of it.
Text by Bogdana Vashchenko, photo by Viktor Lyagushkin.
The piece can be reached also at NAtGeo (Russia) website here.
On April 28, 2020, our leader Viktor Lyagushkin gave a three-hour lecture in Zoom on how to shoot for National Geographic magazine. It is amazing how many new things we have learned: what are the criteria for choosing the material, how to find a topic that may interest the magazine, how to make your photo story according to the requirements of the editors. Viktor gave examples of his projects both under water and underground.
Thanks to everyone who connected to the broadcast, and have sent us such rave reviews! Let me give you a few:
Andrey Krivoshein: A positive moment of what is happening in the world – more virtual meetings that we need, the opportunity to hear something new, to see each other at least on the network and chat! Viktor, thank you for carrying away yourself and us!
Sergey Sheremet: Viktor, thank you, it was interesting to listen about the NG routine and the competition among authors. I caught myself thinking that I personally know almost all speleo photographers who shoot for NG, they are on the fingers of one hand. I also noticed that people came to listen about photography and asked questions about caves, you fascinated them so!
Elena Kurilyuk: Thank you very much for the lecture! So much new and interesting! Sheer delight. I’ll definitely visit the remaining lectures. Thank you for your work and time.
The lecture is available in recording here:
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//screenrec.com/share/BsnLPq6pF0
Hurry to see while the service stores the record.