New Bat Habitat Discovered in Western Alberta

By | Views: 4719 | April 01, 2016

New Bat Habitat Discovered in Western Alberta

BatCaver, an ongoing WCS Canada program, has recently discovered two new bat hibernacula —places where bats hibernate during winter months—in the Alberta foothills. Bats hibernate underground for a large portion of each year, and these newly discovered locations help shed light on the mystery of where many species of bats go each winter.

A total of 103 bats were counted within these hibernacula, including members of two species that are endangered in Canada, little brown bats and northern myotis. Northern myotis were observed as single bats, but the little browns were in clusters of up to 42 individuals.

The discoveries were made by Alberta Environment and Parks bat specialist Dave Hobson and BatCaver coordinators Greg Horne and Dave Critchley, along with Nate DeBock, BatCaver volunteer and member of the Alberta Speleological Society.

The team revisited a previously known hibernaculum in early February, and completed the first accurate bat count and confirmation of species for this cave. The BatCaver coordinators also confirmed another nearby cave as a hibernaculum and placed a roostlogger – equipment used to record bat ultrasound – near three hibernating bats. Recordings from the roostlogger will be used to determine whether further exploration of this cave is warranted.

These two confirmed hibernacula are likely to be just the start of a large number of such discoveries by WCS Canada’s BatCaver program as spring arrives and bats start to emerge from hibernation. The BatCaver program has deployed over 50 roostloggers underground across western Canada. The data from these detectors will start to fill critical knowledge gaps about where bats in western Canada hibernate in winter.

WCS Canada research into bats in western Canada aims to prepare for the arrival of White Nose Syndrome (WNS), a fungal disease that is wiping out bats in eastern Canada. WNS strikes bats while they hibernate in winter, and our program seeks to address gaps in understanding about the behaviour and ecology of 14 Canadian bat species.

One of the newly-explored caves is being used by commercial guided caving groups during the summer. Discussions with stakeholders are taking place to ensure that precautions are taken to avoid introducing the fungus that causes WNS into the cave and to educate cavers on how important it is to avoid disturbing bats during winter hibernation. These new hibernacula confirmations will thus help prepare for the looming threat of population declines by highlighting the habitat needs of these ecologically important animals.

To learn more about this important discovery, click here to read the full release.

You can help bats in Canada. Click here to support BatCaver, and WCS Canada’s ongoing bat research.

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