Flaquer Sánchez Carles

Carles Flaquer Sànchez completed his PhD at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 2009. His doctorate was focused on the study on bats combining methods and learning about bat ecology in Catalonia. His main research interests include the study of human and animal interaction based on the example of bats. He founded the Natural Science Museum of Granollers Bat Department in 2000 and actually he is working as a coordinator of this Bat Research Group and the Natural Science Museum of Granollers itself.

He started working with mesocarnivores and small mammals at the Natural Science Museum of Granollers in 1996, where he got curios about the studies on bats made with bat detectors by Sweden researchers using Pettersson Elektronic devices. In 1999 he started to use bat detectors to study bat populations in Natural Parks and combined this method with other ones allowing him to describe new species for the area and defining the first Atlas and Red List of Catalonian Bats. This work took place in the PhD period in which he tested different methods to have more information about bat ecology, for example, radio-tracking bats.

The main goal of his latest research period has been to create a biodiversity monitoring program based on citizen science. In that sense the Natural Science Museum of Granollers has one of the most successful monitoring programs of bats, small mammals and butterflies in Europe with more than 1000 volunteers and a huge database used by managers and land owners.

Last but not least, he has invested all his life communicating his passion for nature and, in general, for a way of live based on passion plus work. He has been participating in hundreds of events in TV, radio, newspapers and has produced and participated in the Human and Bats documentary filmed around the world. He also has published one book, several chapter books and papers.