Three years of grant rejections. Two failed field studies. One advisor who stopped returning emails. But there they were—greater mouse-eared bats hanging in a Sussex cave, alive when every model said they shouldn't be. I should have felt vindicated. Instead, I sat in my car afterward, staring at blurry photos on my camera, thinking about how many nights I'd stayed up writing proposals for research that 'wasn't commercially viable.' How many conferences I'd presented at, watching colleagues nod politely at my conservation data while they got funding for sexier projects. One breeding female. That's all it took to keep an entire species alive for forty years. Meanwhile, I've been barely holding on for three. The press release will say 'experts are thrilled.' What it won't say is how I cried in that cave, not from joy, but from exhaustion. These bats figured out survival. I'm still working on it. 🦇 #Science #ConservationBurnout #FieldWorkFatigue