Our member Lesley has written this lovely tribute to Mike.

It is with great sadness that we said our goodbyes to Mike Boston as he passed away at home in Puerto Jimenez, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica on Saturday 21st August 2021.

Mike was at the Ulster Museum from the early 1980s, re-organising the Hymenoptera collections and his work was highly regarded by his colleagues in the Botany and Zoology Department.

In 1985 Mike was one of the founding members of Northern Ireland Bat group. There he shared a common interest of bats and their conservation with other group members. He also served as an elected representative on the committee and devoted his time to working with bats both inside and outside of his museum job hours.

As a teenager, being raised in Trinidad, coming to live in Northern Ireland for the first time was a shock to his system and he hankered after the tropics. His sole reason for gaining a degree in biological sciences, his best friend of 45 years, Philip Davison said, was to “get back to where he felt he belonged”.

In the early 1990s Mike realised his dream and travelled to the southwestern corner of Costa Rica, the Osa Peninsula, known for the remarkably high diversity of fauna and flora that it harbours. This iconic corner of Costa Rica is almost entirely covered with lush primary rainforests and it’s where he made his home.

Here he set up a very successful tour company, Osa Aventura, and was legendary for his hikes guiding people in and out of the Corcovado National Park. When he wasn’t hiking Mike devoted his time to conservation, education and eco tourism. He was a respected member of the community in Puerto Jimenez and amongst the many tour guides on the Osa. Mike took his last hike into the park that he so much loved and cared for in April of this year.

There can be no doubt that Mike delighted in watching his daughter Emma, an existing member of the Northern Ireland Bat Group, grow up to share the same interest in Bats. Dr. Emma Boston’s career has even taken her to the Osa to research bats!

Mike is survived by his mother Margaret, his two brothers Alan and Richard, daughter Emma and grandson James.

Mike Boston

28 November 1952 – 21 August 2021