Count some bats, maybe save species
Volunteers needed to help account for the flying insect eaters
A volunteer bat count set for June could help protect the flying mammals from a dangerous disease.
Interested people are invited to join the bat count, conducted at twilight as the animals fly out of roosting sites like barns and attics.
In 2019, counts were conducted at 337 sites across B.C.
The counts help biologists understand where bats live and in what numbers.
That could be important because of the looming threat of whitenose syndrome, a fungal disease fatal to bats.
It has been spreading across Washington state, but has not yet been detected in B.C.
“We know relatively little about bats in B.C., including basic information on population numbers,” Ella Braden, co-ordinator of the Summerland-based Okanagan Community Bat Program, said in a news release.
Having baseline information on bat colonies could help scientists determine whether, and to what extent, the mammals are being affected in the future by whitenose syndrome. That could help in the development of geographically targeted programs to try prevent the spread of the disease, Braden says.
At each known roosting site, counts will be done once or twice between June 1 and June 21, before pups are born, and again between July 11 and Aug. 5 when the pups start flying.
One of the biggest bat colonies locally is in the attic of an centuryold schoolhouse that’s been converted into an art gallery and tourism centre in Peachland.
There are 16 known species of bats in B.C. and the Okanagan has the greatest diversity of the mammals of any region in Canada, including the Little Brown bat and the Yuma bat.
Bats have sometimes got a bad rap through history, and organizers of the upcoming count remind people that bats in B.C. do not have or spread the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
“In reality, bats are an essential part of our ecology, consuming many insect pests each night,” Braden says.
For more information, and to volunteer for a bat count, see bcbats.ca.