Federally-endangered species are afforded some protections in light of new construction and development within their natural ranges. Before any major landuse changes are implemented (e.g., installing a gas pipeline, beginning a surface mining project), companies are required by law to survey for endangered species, and to modify their plans if any are found. That’s where we come in.

This summer, we travelled to northern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, seeking the endangered Indiana bat. We set up 25-ft-high and up to 35-ft-wide “mistnets” that somewhat resemble fine/sheer volleyball nets. Bats, unable to see the fine netting, get entangled. This is a safe way to catch bats, briefly identify and measure them, and release them unharmed.

A complementary technique to survey bats is the recording of echolocation calls. By using an instrument called the Anabat, we record the calls of flying bats, and oftentimes detect species not caught in our mistnets. Using special software to graph/visualize the calls, we can often identify bat calls to the species level.  Furthermore, the Anabat also helps us get a better picture of when species are most active and if they are successfully catching insects, as “feeding buzzes” are clear when visualizing them in our software program. We are working together to identify the more than 10,000 calls recorded this summer at 29 sites through Pennsylvania and New Jersey. With these data, we are planning to investigate questions concerning mistnetting effort vs. Anabat in successfully documenting bat communities, and nightly difference in species detection. We are planning to submit a manuscript for publication in a professional journal in the spring, as well as disseminate our results at regional wildlife meetings.

One of the other important pieces of data we are collecting concerns the health of individual bats. With the bat in hand (from mistnetting efforts), we check for signs of disease or overall poor health. This is especially important in light of the devastating White Nose Syndrome (WNS), a disease that has killed hundreds of thousands of cave bats in the northeastern U.S. Although the causative agent for this plight is unclear, infected bats are susceptible to a white fungus that grows on their face and wings while they are hibernating. When they awake from hibernation (often too early), they have depleted their fats reserves – and often starve. Those who survive to the summer months tend to have torn or holey wing membranes, and discoloration (splotching) on the wings. We observed some individuals this summer in extremely poor condition, as Pennsylvania has been hit hard by this disease.

Because WNS was discovered in caves in Virginia this past March, we – unfortunately – expect that infected bats will become common in the near future. We’re currently working with the Virginia Department of Conservation & Recreation and the Virginia Department of Game & Inland Fisheries to monitor the health of bats in our region. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be visiting caves in this region, and will be placing unique, identifiable bands on bats. We’ll revisit these caves in the spring to determine if our banded bats survived their hibernation – and, if so – what condition they’re in. We hope that the monitoring and tracking of WNS can provide data to minimize the impact of this deadly disease on our valuable bat community.