Long days in urban bat outreach

Bat walk led by Amanda Bevan, Urban Bat Project, Organization for Bat Conservation in Pontiac, Michigan.  Credit: Organization for Bat Conservation.

Amanda Bevan is busy and for her, that’s a good thing.

As the Organization for Bat Conservation’s Urban Bat Project Leader, Bevan educates city folks about the importance of bats, and if she’s busy, it means people are aware of the decline of bats due to white nose syndrome (WNS) disease and want to help.

With the help of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service WNS grant, Bevan organizes conservation and outreach partnerships in 10 cities in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Tennessee, New York, Minnesota, Ohio and the District of Columbia. She says she hopes to expand the project to other cities in the future with additional funding.

Partners include a Milwaukee horticultural society, Columbus Audubon, Illinois State Museum,  a District of Columbia Fisheries and Wildlife Division bat biologist, high school teachers and students, bat researchers and horticulturalists like those at the New York Botanical Gardens.

They set up warm, safe bat boxes made from upcycled Chevy Volt battery cases for breeding females, plant bat-friendly gardens of wildflowers that attract the bats’ prey insects, and conduct bat walks in which citizen scientists drive and walk around urban areas with hand-held bat detectors that records bat calls and identify species through an app on their smart phones.

Students in Fulton High School’s construction class building bat houses using donated corvette circuit boards and Chevy Volt battery cases from GM. Credit: Organization for Bat Conservation.

“Most of the time, people can learn what species are living in their neighborhood in real time,” Bevan said.

Surprisingly, urban bat habitats are important, Bevan explains. Urban bat conservation may help reduce effects of WNS by providing alternative roosting habitat that might be unsuitable for the fungus that causes WNS, Pseudogymnoascus destructans, or Pd.

Urban bats likely hibernate in the city in addition to breeding there in the summer, and Pd cannot survive the temperatures and humidity found in buildings and bat houses. If the urban bat project increases public support for bats in cities, it might bolster populations that have been decimated by WNS in other habitats.

“We don’t know if big brown bats are not as affected by WNS in cities.”

Typically people find big brown bats in urban areas, a species that has escaped much of the large population drops found in other species.  “We don’t know if big brown bats are not as affected by WNS in cities,” Bevan adds.  It’s one of many questions about urban bats she hopes the citizen science project can address in the future.

The urban bat project is not just focused on big brown bats. Urban areas are important for migrating bats through urban areas from other populations in other regions. Project participants often see little brown bats in the city and northern long-eared bats in eaves of suburban homes and trees that surround them.

Bevan’s work also includes presentations with live bats from the 11 species housed at the Organization for Bat Conservation’s injured bat sanctuary. In addition to flying foxes and other bats from around the world, she gives her audiences a close-up view of species that fly around their neighborhood such as Indiana and big brown bats.

Red bat spotted in Detroit by one of Organization for Bat Conservation’s  Urban Bat Project (UBP) partners. Credit: Organization for Bat Conservation.

When a child and their parent attend one of the Organization for Bat Conservation’s environmental education events, Bevan reminds them how useful bats are in agricultural and urban areas. She cites a scientific paper (by Boyles et al. 2011) when she explains that insects can spread fungi destructive to crops and that insect-eating bats can save the agricultural industry $3.7 billion per year.

She adds that some bats like Indiana bats increase their intake of mosquitoes during the breeding period, and that supporting maternity colonies with bat boxes helps reduce numbers of the pathogen-carrying insects. All of this helps the public understand how bats benefit them and are glad to see their bat neighbors thriving.

To help the Organization for Bat Conservation in their efforts to #Savethebats, please visit their web site.

Return of the “Caped” Crusader

Yesterday we heard from Emily Peters, an Appalachian Forest Heritage Area AmeriCorps member at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s West Virginia Field Office. Peters shared her “Bat Week” event success story. Today she’s back to tell us how she helped families go “batty” for a good cause, through fun activities and a little bit of bat-box-building know how. 

(Cue Bat signal and real-life “Bat Woman” Emily Peters)

Last week, North America was spreading the news about how bats are amazing creatures that are incredibly important to the ecosystem and to the economy. In addition to being Batman’s symbol of glory, bats perform several important ecological services such as pollinating flowers, seed dispersal, and pest control. A single bat will eat up to their body weight in insects every night! Think about it: how many McDonalds double cheeseburgers would we have to eat to do that? (Don’t try that at home, kids) These “insect vacuums” are great for farmers, as they act as a natural and FREE insecticide. That’s less chemicals on our food and more money going back to our economy, people.

Bat Week volunteers share in the festivities as they craft alongside the families who participated. Credit: Emily Peters

So basically, bats are the coolest. They’re also kind of real life super heroes. I felt it was important that other people knew that too. What better way to show appreciation for bats than throwing a party?? Bats have an extra hurdle to jump over, as they are often viewed as scary creatures of the night that suck your blood (thanks a lot, Dracula). I aimed to change that idea, presenting educational information in the form of FUN. I decided to become the hero bats needed and joined my colleges in one of the nerdiest fiestas of the year: Bat Week.

Jr. “bat biologists” in training explore a huge inflatable bat cave. Credit: Emily Peters/AmeriCorps

On the dawning of the event day, my brain buzzed with excitement and anxiety. It was the day of reckoning- my hard work over the last month was about to be put to the test. I awoke from a long night of restless sleep- feeling like a kid waiting for Santa all night. I wanted to cry, laugh, and vomit in a corner somewhere all at the same time. Yep, Bat Week was finally here!

A family proudly displays the bat box they built together during the second day of Bat Week in Elkins, W.Va. Credit: Emily Peters/AmeriCorps

 

 

The event kicked off with an open house- filled with activities that families could have fun and get batty with. They checked their “bat-itudes,” determining which is truth or myth on statements like “All bats have rabies” and “Bats are flying rats” (both are myths, by the way). Visitors became bat biologists by fashioning helmets and headlamps to explore a giant inflatable bat cave, dodging stalactites and stalagmites along the way. They collected data on individual bats, measuring forearm lengths and weighing models in an attempt to identify individual species in an activity appropriately named “Working the Night Shift.” There were also plenty of bat-tastic crafts and giveaways, of course. Kids left with colorful bat hats, masks, and kites, handfuls of candy, and bat stickers galore. Overall, we had around 150 visitors participate in the evening’s events!

A family prepares to get “batty” and build a bat box together for Bat Week in Elkins, W.Va. Credit: Emily Peters/AmeriCorps

But the fiesta didn’t end there- families returned for a second night of celebration the following day, this time to build bat boxes. Participants who came on the second day understood and appreciated bats and were thankful for an opportunity to help the little heroes. Some of these participants came with this attitude naturally; others had adopted it from the first night of activities. A bat box is a great way to help bat species by providing a shelter for them to roost in. It also benefits the bat box owner since the bats living inside will feast on mosquito populations living the property. Good bye bug bites, hello bats!

Families worked together toward mutual conservation efforts, all by simply wielding a hammer. I ordered 30 bat box kits from Organization for Bat Conservation, and 30 bat boxes were built by the end of the night! There were around 80 participants throughout the evening. The assembled boxes were taken home by the family that built them, to be hung up on their properties in hopes of directly helping bat populations.

As the second night of batty fun came to a close, my emotions shifted from a state of anxiety to serenity. I couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride in myself, along with relief! No major tragedies happened- nobody bled at any point, all appendages remained appropriately attached, my volunteers were rock stars, and everyone came and left with a smile on their face. Bat Week was over and it turned out better than I hoped for. I had done my duty in the battle for bats- it was time to hang up my cape.

But only for a little while…

Click here if you missed Peters’ introduction yesterday to her bat-tastic, Bat Week event!

“Bats get caught in your hair – I saw it on TV!”

Today you’re hearing from Christina Kocer, the white-nose syndrome coordinator for our Northeast Region. Credit: USFWS

 

Halloween means zombies, witches, vampires, and goblins lurk in the shadows and around every corner. Toothy, carved pumpkins and images of bats silhouetted against a full moon abound.

I admit the idea of encountering a zombie does not sit well with me; however, bats are a different story. Despite their spooky image, bats are far from terrifying, and I can assure you, they really don’t want anything to do with your hair. 

Bats get a bad rap. I recently watched a movie that depicted bats as swarming, voracious creatures with chameleon-like abilities to change colors and hide in plain sight, waiting to attack.

That is terrifying, right? But that is about as far from reality as you can get.

Here’s an exotic one for you. The Rodrigues flying fox (which has a wingspan of about 3 feet) is the only native mammal from the island of Rodrigues in the Mauritius Island belt near Madagascar. These endangered bats were brought into captivity in the late 1970s when their numbers were less than 100 on the island. Photo courtesy of Organization for Bat Conservation, credit to Steve Gettle. Read more at their site.

As much as I’d love to see a bat turn from black to purple to green, it just won’t happen. Instead, real bats are likely to use their natural color to just blend in and hide by tucking underneath tree bark or burying themselves in clumps of leaves. And as long as we are clearing the air, bats…

• will not fly into your hair;
• will not suck your blood;
• will not try to eat you alive; and
• will not chew through your siding, your shutters, or your attic vents.

Bats are not birds, they are not giant insects, and they are not flying rodents. They do not build nests. They will not breed like rabbits and rapidly infest your house. They are not blind. They are not flying, disease ridden vermin searching out unsuspecting humans to infect.

Well, if they aren’t going to attack me in my sleep, build nests in my hair, or try to eat my brains, what the heck are they, and what do they do? Bats are mammals — the only mammals capable of flight. They are covered in soft fur and give birth to live young (pups) which are nursed until they are old enough to venture out on their own.

A tri-colored bat showing signs of white-nose syndrome while hibernating in a Massachusetts cave. Credit: Jon Reichard

Even though some people think they look like flying mice, they are not closely related to rodents. The bones in their wings are the same bones you have in your own hand. Bats are very diverse, making up about one quarter of all mammals worldwide:

• They range in size from the world’s smallest mammal, the small, bumblebee-sized bumblebee bat to the large flying foxes, with their 6-foot wingspans.
• They are pollinators, fruit eaters, seed dispersers, and insect devourers.
• They can have big ears, small ears or pointy ears;
• Fancy wrinkly faces or a face that looks remarkably like fox’s;
• Small, pointed noses or noses that resemble a leaf; and they can have long tails or short tails.

And yes, some bats feed on blood. But don’t worry; even though vampire bats do exist, these very specialized creatures are smaller than your typical cell phone and aren’t the terrifying creatures you may be imagining. Vampire bats live in Central and South America and typically feed on the blood of livestock, and believe it or not, their feeding ritual goes largely unnoticed by their prey. Their saliva has even been used to develop medicines for stroke patients.

Check out this blog post from our Director Dan Ashe, ”The Real Horror Would Be If Bats Disappear”

Closer to home, here in the Northeast, our native bats are small, and most weigh about the same as a few pennies.

Eastern red bats are America’s most abundant tree bats, roosting right out in the foliage of deciduous or sometimes evergreen trees. Read more at Bat Conservation International. Credit: Marianne Moore

White-nose syndrome has led to a 99-percent drop in northern long-eared bat populations in the Northeast, leading to our proposal earlier this month to protect them as endangered. Credit: Al Hicks/NYSDEC

The thousands of insects they eat each night save farmers millions of dollars on insect control and crop damage. That makes bats the most organic form of insect control you can get. Our local bats are agile fliers who are adept at navigating through thick forests in search of their insect prey. They readily devour the pests that eat our food crops and trees, and spread disease.

Those bats that seem to be swooping down to grab a chunk of your hair? Yep, those bats might just be going after insects too — the insects that are going after you.

Bats are long-lived species; some individuals have even been documented to have survived for over 30 years. Quite unlike rodents, most bats are only able to produce one to two pups each year (some species may have up to 4 pups).

Unfortunately, right now bats have something to fear themselves – white-nose syndrome (WNS). WNS is a rapidly spreading fungal disease that has resulted in the catastrophic decline of bats throughout eastern North America.

Over 5.7 million bats have already died, and because bats are long-lived and produce so few young, it will take many generations for populations to recover from this disease.

And, speaking of diseases, the claim that all bats are rabid is yet another fear perpetuated by popular media.

While it’s true that bats can carry rabies, less than 1 percent of wild bats are actually infected with the disease. Even so, don’t go picking up any bats you might find on the ground. That bat may be sick or injured, and it won’t be worth the mandatory rabies shots you’ll have to get if you try to handle it. Call your local wildlife biologist for help.

While there is no reason for us to fear these beneficial critters, I admit, it’s unnerving to have a bat flying circles in your living room. But, if that happens to you, gather your wits, remember why bats are good, and help the little guy escape safely by opening a window so the bat can fly out.

Despite what you may have seen on TV, the world is a better place for everyone with bats in it. 🙂