Bat Monitoring Results, New Projects, Bat Diets Spotlighted
Bat Newsletter: Silver Linings, New Projects And Results Revealing Bats' Voracious, Varied Appetites
In a world seemingly flipped upside down in 2020, the image of two hibernating little brown bats pairing up to make it through a long winter hit home. Every year, but particularly this year, volunteers for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources' Wisconsin Bat Program have our back.
Their efforts played an important role in helping our three DNR bat biologists continue critical efforts to protect, monitor and manage populations of Wisconsin's native bat species, particularly the four hibernating bat species vulnerable to white-nose syndrome, a deadly disease of bats. Thank you volunteers!
Inside the Echolocator you'll find:
- Results from DNR population surveys at hibernation sites, including "ground zero" where white-nose syndrome was first detected in Wisconsin in 2014
- What volunteer monitors found when counting bats emerging from roosts and from "listening" to bats' nighttime calls while driving, walking or paddling along set routes
- Updates on the first vaccine trials in the wild for white-nose syndrome and new DNR projects using remote technologies to keep tabs on bats during the pandemic
- A fascinating look by DNR partner and former UW-Madison PhD Researcher Amy Wray at her study quantifying and analyzing what’s on the menu for Wisconsin bats and why that matters.