City activates bat signals to protect endangered species
Throughout June, biologists survey new development sites for traces of nocturnal flyers
Every June, biologists for engineering consultant firms swoop into proposed development sites in the GTA to check if they’re home to . . . bats.
There are eight species of bats in Ontario, all of which are protected, and of those, four species are endangered.
The biologists run surveys to figure out which bats live in the area, and based on that, what the developer has to do to mitigate its impact on them.
Bat populations in the province have collapsed in recent years, in part because of habitat destruction, but largely due to white-nose syndrome, a fungus that interrupts bats’ hibernation cycle.
It was first found in Ontario in March 2010 and quickly spread.
On an overcast June morning, a pair of biologists for Cole Engineering Group Ltd. were busy installing devices for an acoustic survey on bats at Mississauga Valley Park.
“How do you survey a species that flies, is active only at night and makes sounds we can’t even hear?” said Chris Parent, a senior biologist for the engineering company. “Their inherent nature makes them very, very difficult animals to study.”
This survey, which uses acoustic devices that resemble small, plastic green lunch boxes, is how biologists such as Parent get it done.
The devices are secured about 10 metres high to trees, 20 to 30 metres apart from each other, Parent said. They record bat calls using an ultrasonic microphone, and turn out a sonogram, which lets biologists identify the species of bats in the area.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry requires developers to find out whether there are any protected species at risk, whether their habitats are present at or near the location of the proposed development, said ministry spokesperson Jolanta Kowalski in an email.
This survey is using five devices in total, each of which costs about $2,000, Parent said.
Studies on wildlife in proposed development sites are nothing new — similar studies already exist for birds, plants and amphibians, for example — but studying bats presents a unique set of hurdles.
“Due to these species being very cryptic and mobile, it is nearly impossible to have any accurate population numbers for any area,” she said in an email. Kowalski added that all of Ontario’s eight species of bats have habitats in the GTA.
June is high season for this particular survey, which must be conducted during that month alone and must last 10 days at minimum, because it’s when bats are most active.
And if a significant number of endangered species is found, developers have to try and mitigate the impact of the development on the bats and improve the area for them by, for example, replanting an area with trees to compensate for trees being cut down or by installing bat boxes to make up for lost habitat.