Become a citizen scientist with the BC Annual Bat Count
Become a citizen scientist with the BC Annual Bat Count
May 7, 2024
Victoria, BC. The BC Community Bat Program is calling for volunteers to get involved in the BC Annual Bat Count. Starting June 1st, bat biologists and volunteers will be enjoying late nights, counting bats at maternity roosts throughout the province.
“Female bats roost together in summer and raise their young in maternity colonies,” says Laposa-Wilde, Southern Vancouver Island coordinator for the BC Community Bat Program. “They generally only have one pup per female in June.” The males do not help with raising the young and usually roost by themselves in large trees, rock cliffs, boulder fields, or barns and building.
Bat counting workshop: Volunteers counting bats as they come out of an attic roost. Photo by Okanagan Community Bat Program
The Annual Bat Count involves sitting outside a bat maternity roost at sunset and, for an hour, counting all the bats that come out of that roost. “The maternity roosts that we count are in buildings, bat boxes, or bridges” says Laposa-Wilde.
Last year, volunteers counted 1600 bats at 13 roost sites in the CRD. “The data collected is really important as it helps us know how the bat populations are doing in BC,” says Laposa-Wilde. “We usually do 4 bat counts at every roost site – two in June to count just the females and two more starting mid-July when the pups are learning to fly.”
Begun in 2012, the Annual Bat Count is the only long-term monitoring program focused on bat summer roosts in BC. The counts help biologists monitor bat populations and track impacts to or recovery of species. If populations decline, it could indicate impacts from white-nose syndrome (WNS), a fungal disease that has decimated bat populations in eastern Canada and USA. The fungus that causes WNS was detected in 2022 in the Grand Forks region of BC, but WNS itself has not been detected yet in BC.
“A large number of the roost site we count, house Little Brown Myotis and Yuma Myotis, both of which are susceptible to white-nose syndrome,” says Laposa-Wilde.
Bat emerging from bat box - John Saremba
Bats in BC are key predators of many night-flying insects. They are essential parts of BC’s ecosystems and provide billions of dollars of economic benefit by helping control agricultural, forest, and urban pests. Please report a bat colony or sign up to help with bat counts by emailing bat@hat.bc.ca or calling 250-995-2428. In partnership with the BC Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, the BC Community Bat Program provides information and promotes local stewardship and citizen science. The program runs thanks to funding from the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation, Forest Enhancement Society of BC, the Habitat Stewardship Program, and many regional partners. You can find out more about the BC Community Bat Program and options for helping local bat populations at www.bcbats.ca.
Contact:
Julianna Laposa-Wilde, Southern Vancouver Island Coordinator
BC Community Bat Program
www.bcbats.ca
bat@hat.bc.ca
250-995-2428