Volunteers Make Tracking and Protecting Bats Possible

You’ve probably heard of the Audubon Society’s annual bird counts: a coordinated inventory of bird species diversity and numbers across the nation. But have you heard about “Bat Blitzes?”

A group of more than 80 volunteers recently converged on five coastal counties in southeastern North Carolina for the latest Bat Blitz, a three-night species inventory event organized by staff at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences and the NC State Parks system. Like other events across the state, it was hosted under the umbrella of the Southeastern Bat Diversity Network, a regional consortium dedicated to bat conservation. 

During the inventory, biologists gathered information on species diversity, population numbers, age, sex and general health. They also checked for signs of white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease that has resulted in the deaths of millions of bats nationwide. Bats in the Appalachian Mountains have been hard hit by the disease. White-nose syndrome causes bats to wake up from hibernation early, before insect populations on which they depend for food have emerged in the spring.

Why Bats?

Bats have great value as pollinators and in insect control, notably mosquitoes. Plus, participants in the blitzes enjoy experiencing the outdoors in a way few people see. “You can walk along a trail during the day, but when you’re out there at night, everything looks and sounds and smells and feels different than it did in the day, and you’re experiencing it in a completely different way,” said one volunteer. 

Systematic species inventories like the Bat Blitz are important to understanding the status of biodiversity in our environment. As with the science of climate change, understanding where key links of our ecosystems stand – and why – is essential to gaining control of the ongoing losses in our natural world.

Read the full article on Coastal Review here.