Greek: hand + wing + studier. More or less.
A person who studies
mammals of the
order chiroptera, AKA
bats. Talk about a cool job.
The only chiroptologist I have heard mentioned by name is Donald R. Griffin, who helped the army with their bat research during WWII. For a while they were thinking of dropping napalm on the Japanese by way of parachuting bats (Species T. brasiliensis) with explosive payloads.
Maybe it's not such a cool job...
Anyway, despite his help managing the bats, The Adams Plan, as it was called, didn't work. I have no information on Don's next project... Something more low-key, I hope.
Yes, Really and Truley. Source: Natural Acts (Wool of Bat) by David Quammen.