Rachel Page

Rachel Page is a Staff Scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), Smithsonian Institution, based in Gamboa, Panama. Her research integrates field observation with controlled laboratory experiments to investigate sensory and cognitive mechanisms in Neotropical bats. Positioned at STRI, she leverages direct access to natural habitats for in-depth behavioral studies.

Her primary research focuses on how bats use acoustic cues to identify palatable versus toxic prey, particularly examining developmental differences between juvenile and adult frog-eating bats (Trachops cirrhosus). Key findings reveal that young bats must learn to associate specific frog calls with meal quality through experience, while adults demonstrate refined discrimination abilities. This work bridges cognitive ecology, sensory biology, and evolutionary adaptation.

Page's research methodology combines野外 recordings of frog calls, behavioral testing in outdoor flight chambers, and longitudinal tracking of bat responses. Her work demonstrates how body size correlates with call frequency in prey species, and how bats learn to override size-based biases when prey prove toxic or unwieldy.

She receives funding from the National Science Foundation and Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, collaborating with researchers like Logan S. James and Ximena Bernal. Page actively engages in fieldwork using mist nets for bat capture and RFID tagging for longitudinal studies, emphasizing natural history observation as foundational to experimental design.