THE INVISIBLE MAMMAL

The Invisible Mammal is a feature-length documentary film about bats, infectious disease, and women in science. In this intensely cinematic film, bats are rendered poetically visible: spectacularly streaming out of caves or bridges, or cradled in a gloved hand, wings extended. Wonder is the overriding emotion. Adventure is a key mood, along with mind-expanding discovery in the company of some of the most prominent human faces in bat conservation. 

Against the backdrop of a global pandemic and the sixth mass extinction, a team of women biologists set out to save a North American bat species from a deadly fungal disease called White-nose Syndrome (WNS). As the disease reaches the far corners of the continent, a global pandemic attributed to a bat species in China interrupts their project, their jobs, and their commitment to protect bat species, no matter the odds.

The Invisible Mammal highlights the need for solutions to our global extinction crisis. One million species around the globe are now at risk of extinction, including several species of North America’s bats, due to White-nose Syndrome. If we lose our bats, humans will also suffer. Bats save U.S. agriculture billions of dollars in pesticide use a year - over $1 Billion per year for corn crops alone! The decline of bat populations is showing as a direct increase in infant mortality rates where these pesticides are used. This film offers up a pioneering solution called Operation Fat Bat, a project that, if successful, could rebuild healthy bat populations across North America.

Since 2006, WNS has decimated bat populations across the continent, killing approximately 7 million bats. Originally discovered in upstate New York, the fungal disease has spread across 37 states in the U.S., and 7 provinces in Canada, from New York to California, from Manitoba to Texas.

Based on the festival success of her award-winning short film (The Bat Rescuer), Kristin decided to expand the project to cover the full scope of the crisis surrounding WNS. Meanwhile, COVID-19 introduced a new storyline, as a species of bat in China was targeted as the cause of the pandemic. The film intends to shine a bright light on pioneering conservation solutions, while helping humanity understand how infectious disease is caused and spread, and how we can better fit into the shared ecosystem, with bats leading us all to greater enlightenment.

Bats are elusive creatures to many. Even scientists confront so many mysteries about this group of mammals. The Invisible Mammal makes the invisible visible and gives voice to scientists as engaging characters embarking on a critically urgent fight to save bats from extinction.