Piyathip Piyapan is from Thailand, where she is currently studying the world’s smallest bat - the bumblebee bat (Craseonycteris thonglonyai). She completed her EDGE Fellowship in December 2008. Piyathip has been studying and working on conservation projects for a range of endangered species in Thailand. She completed her undergraduate and Master’s degrees at Mahidol University in Bangkok and is now working towards a PhD at the  Prince Songkla University.

Piyathip’s PhD and EDGE project focused on the questions about the specific characteristics of roost sites and roost caves that the bat requires and their behaviour while staying in the roost caves (bumblebee bats spend more than 90% of their lifetime in roost caves).

Under her EDGE Fellowship, Piyathip investigated roost selection of the bumblebee bat and determined activity patterns and time activity budget for roosting activities of this species. Piyathip compared roost sites with non-roost sites and determined which specific characteristics (e.g. geographic location, elevation, position, direction etc) play the most significant role in determining roost selection. Roosting behaviour, activity patterns and activity budgets was determined by comparing roost sites with different levels of human disturbance, and recording activity using iInfrared-illuminated closed circuit television (IR-CCTV).

Piyathip’s experience with the Bumblebee bats started eight-years ago when she was a research assistant for a colleague who conducted his Master’s thesis on foraging ecology in this bat species. Later, in 2004, Piyathip joined him to carry out a survey to monitor distribution, population and conservation status of bumblebee bats in Thailand. Following this, she decided to embark on a PhD which would continue the study on this tiny bat.