Bats

A Love Affair with Bats

I have had many great nights out catching bats in the north eastern U.S. It’s a treat to be outside during the night, it’s incredible what you see! Millipedes, spiders, dew drops and all other sorts of night life.

I have worked with a variety of studies which use mist-netting and harp trapping techniques to capture bats. These studies have a variety of goals including marking presence or taking tissue/fur samples for analysis.

Pictured here – in no particular order –  are some of the bats I’ve had the privilege of working with through the years. Species are :

Bats serve a tremendous ecosystem service and should be your friends! If you have a place where bats frequent, think about taking measures like putting up bat houses. Bats eat a lot of mosquitoes – so use that as incentive!

Lately the cave-hibernating species of north america have been decimated by white-nose syndrome. This fungal disease was likely introduced from European caves, and has led to precipitous drops in bat populations; conservatively the Fish and Wildlife service estimates 5,500,000 bats have died (5.5 million!)To read about white-nose syndrome visit http://www.whitenosesyndrome.org/ for some great information on the national plan to help control the spread of this disease.

One of the important pieces of data to collect is whether the bat is an adult or juvenile. Bats, like humans, have cartilage in their joints when they are young. By shining a light through the wing it becomes apparent that this particular bat is a junvenile!
Little Brown Bat (Myotis lucifugus)
Taking measurements on the foot of a bat. Those feet are meant for grabbing onto bark and rock faces
Eastern Red Bat (Laserius borealis)
Eastern Red Bat (Laserius borealis)
Northern longeared bats are characterized by the long tragus. The tragus is the inner flap of their ear.
Hoary Bat (Laserius cinerus) are one of the larger bats in North America, they feed mostly on moths and beetles.
Little Brown Bat (Myotis lucifugus)
Eastern Pipistrille/ Tri-colored Bat (Perimyotis subflavus)
Northern long-eared bats are characterized by the long tragus. The tragus is the inner flap of their ear.
Indiana bats are in decline due to habitat loss and other factors including white nose syndrome. It is important to understand where they are roosting so those habitats can be preserved.
Many of the ‘myotis’ species look the same – one of the tell-tale diagnostics of the indian abt is the lump on its heel, called the keel, which you can see here.
Small-footed Bat (Myotis leibii) captured in Acadia National Park, Maine

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