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Monitoring Monday – Bats in our watersheds.
Join us Mondays as the Clean Water Team shares information and resources on water quality monitoring and our watersheds. This Monitoring Monday (or should it be Weird Water Wednesday) we feature bats.
Bats occupy just about every available terrestrial habitat type available in California. Many of these bats depend on riparian forests. Our riparian forests serve as flight corridors, are sources of flying insects preyed on by bats, and provide roosts. Bats serve several hugely important functions, including pest management, pollination of rare plants, and seed dispersal. Without protection and management of our bats, these functions will be severely compromised or lost. (Image: Yolo Causeway bat flight.)
California is home to 27 species of bats. 17 of these species have declined to the point of warranting some level of state or federal protection. According to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife the threat to bat populations is only increasing. Current threats to California’s bats include:
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Habitat Destruction
Loss and fragmentation of habitat (cutting down trees, fire suppression, development of open spaces for roads or buildings, changes in hydrology, draining wetlands…). These losses can also lead to diminished food supplies and a reduction of available roosts.
White-nose Syndrome
In June 2019, the fungus that causes White-nose Syndrome was detected in low levels for the first time in Plumas County. The fungus – Pseudogymnoascus destructans – grows in and on bats’ skin during winter hibernation and spreads quickly through bat colonies. WNS has killed more than six million bats elsewhere in the U.S. and minimizing its impacts on California’s bats is a top priority for CDFW’s Nongame Wildlife Program. (Image: Bat with visible growth of Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd) fungus on muzzle and ears. USFWS)
Wind Energy
Dead bats are found beneath wind turbines all over the world. It is estimated that tens to hundreds of thousands die at wind turbines each year in North America alone. The rates of bats traveling at wind energy facilities have the potential to cause rapid declines in bat populations and increase the risk of extinction.
Climate Change
Changes in temperature may affect hibernation periods and the availability of suitable hibernacula in the future.
Persecution
Traditional fears of bats are based on exaggerated negative portrayals of bats, such as vampires gorging on human blood and false information about bats such, as bats being blind or getting stuck in your hair.
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Bats are a wonderful beneficial animal for us. By eating insects, bats save California and U.S. agriculture billions of dollars per year in pest control. Some studies have estimated that service to be worth over $3.7 billion per year, and possibly as much as $53 billion. This value does not however consider the volume of insects eaten by bats in forest ecosystems and the degree to which that benefits industries like lumber. It also does not consider the critical importance of bats as plant and crop pollinators. So, the actual monetary worth of bats is far greater than $3.7 billion per year. (Image: Pallid bat captured during mist netting in Marin County. NPS)
It’s not just plants and agriculture that benefit from bats. Biologists at the University of Michigan were the first to conduct an experimental assessment of the little brown myotis (Myotis lucifugus) in flight in Wisconsin. They documented that bats can significantly reduce numbers of ovipositing mosquitoes and suggested that bat predation on mosquitoes could help regulate disease vectors.
Many may be wondering about potential risks bats pose. Mammals (including bats and humans) and birds are known to have coronaviruses. Most do not move to humans. Scientists are still investigating the origins of how the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic became established in the human population. This virus is like a virus that has been found in horseshoe bats in China, but the true origin of the virus and how it first infected people is still unknown. Even if horseshoe bats are found to be the reservoir for the current coronavirus, there is no reason to fear bats. They are amazing mammals whose bodies have adapted to live with certain viruses. There is no evidence that suggests that the bats found in North America harbor these types of coronaviruses.
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Monitoring bats can be as simple as making a visual id or as complicated as analyzing sounds produced by a bat. There are many bat recorders and detectors that collect or measure bat sounds. Some of these devices are handheld (there are even smartphone adapters with apps) while others can be deployed to make autonomous recordings for later analysis. An emerging tool for bat conservation is the use of environmental DNA which can be used to identify species using a roost or for detecting white-nose syndrome presence. (Image: Mexican free-tailed bat echolocation call visually represented as a sonogram. NPS)
Monitors and watershed stewards can help bats and play an active role in bat management. This can be accomplished by learning more about California’s bats and informing others, promoting scientifically based management of California’s forests and riparian areas, and by monitoring bats. The Clean Water Team has compiled a list of resources which it has added to this email to help you get started.
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REFERENCES & RESOURCES:
BAT WEEK
Bat Week is an international celebration of the role of bats in nature. https://batweek.org/
CALIFORNIA’S BATS
Acoustic Bat Monitoring Starts Yielding Results at Pinnacles National Park https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/acoustic-bat-monitoring-starts-yielding-results-at-pinnacles-national-park.htm
Bats are an important part of northern California's ecosystem, but their population is declining https://www.kcra.com/article/bats-important-part-northern-californias-ecosystem-population-declining/40669892
Bat Conservation in the San Francisco Bay Area https://www.nps.gov/articles/bat-conservation-sf-bay-area.htm
Bat Conservation International’s Profiles of California Bat Species www.batcon.org/about-bats/bat-profiles/?fwp_location=california
Bats can pack a punch in pest control in California agriculture https://calag.ucanr.edu/Archive/?article=ca.v052n01p6b
Bat Research in California https://www.usgs.gov/centers/werc/science/bat-research-california
CDFW’s Wildlife Life Histories https://wildlife.ca.gov/Data/CWHR/Life-History-and-Range
California Bat Working Group https://www.calbatwg.org/
Caltrans Bat Mitigation: A Guide to Developing Feasible and Effective Solutions https://dot.ca.gov/-/media/dot-media/programs/environmental-analysis/documents/env/caltrans-bat-mitigation-guide-a11y.pdf
Epidemic Disease of Bats: White-nose Syndrome https://wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Laboratories/Wildlife-Health/Monitoring/WNS
Inventory & Monitoring Protocols – Bats (California State Parks) https://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/734/files/imap%20bats%20protocol%20table%20.pdf
Northern California Bats https://norcalbats.org/
Reducing Impacts to Birds, Bats from Wind Energy https://www.energy.ca.gov/data-reports/reports/reducing-impacts-birds-bats-wind-energy
Report a Bat Colony https://wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Mammals/Bats/Report-Colony
BAT IDENTIFICATION
Field Identification Key and Guide for Bats of the United States of America www.researchgate.net/publication/330542108_Field_Identification_Key_and_Guide_for_Bats_of_the_United_States_of_America
Western U.S. Bats ID Key (fee) https://batmanagement.com/products/western-u-s-bats-id-key
A Guide to Processing Bat Acoustic Data for the North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat) https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2018/1068/ofr20181068.pdf
NAU’s Bat Ecology and Genetics Lab https://in.nau.edu/bat-ecology-genetics/
CITIZEN SCIENCE
Acoustic Bat Blitz 2023
If you have a bat detector and way to identify which species you detected, get it out *tonight* to help us learn cool things about bats and inform the public about it. Simply deploy the detector overnight somewhere: your backyard, your favorite park, your field site, at your office….. Identify the species you detect. Even if you think you’ll get no detections, try it anyway: you might be surprised and knowing where bats aren’t active is also important and interesting. Report the results. https://batweek.org/event/acoustic-bat-blitz-2023/
Backyard Bat Survey
The Backyard Bat Survey is a project within a larger NHMLAC urban biodiversity study called the SuperProject. Help the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Backyard Bat Survey Team and our local bats by sharing locations that are bat hot spots and potential roost (where bats settle to rest during the day) locations. https://nhm.org/community-science-nhm/backyard-bats
Citizen Scientists Help Identify Bat Species Using Acoustic Detectors
In 2015, the University of Winnipeg joined Neighborhood Bat Watch, a citizen science program that uses the general public to collect a large amount of data over large spatial and temporal scales, and in doing so, engages these citizen scientists in the protection of bats. Bat watch participants upload the locations of bat maternity colonies to the website. However, in most cases the general public is unable to identify the species of bats using these summer roosts. https://wildlifemanagement.institute/outdoor-news-bulletin/march-2019/citizen-scientists-help-identify-bat-species-using-acoustic
Large-Scale Urban Bat Ecology Study (Los Angeles) https://www.wildlifeacoustics.com/customer-stories/large-scale-urban-bat-ecology-study
Next-generation ultrasonic recorders facilitate effective bat activity and distribution monitoring by citizen scientists.
Time and budgetary resources are often a limiting factor in the collection of large-scale ecological data. If data collected by citizen scientists were comparable to data collected by researchers, it would allow for more efficient data collection over a broad geographic area. https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecs2.3866
Thousands of citizen scientists help researchers track bat populations.
Researchers use volunteers and innovative technology to monitor bat populations. https://www.npr.org/2023/08/22/1195172502/thousands-of-citizen-scientists-help-researchers-track-bat-populations
MONITORING BATS
3 Cool Ways USGS is Studying Bats in National Parks https://www.usgs.gov/news/featured-story/3-cool-ways-usgs-studying-bats-national-parks
Bat Acoustic Monitoring Portal
The Bat Acoustic Monitoring Portal (Bat AMP) provides a place where users can archive and visualize datasets generated from any type of acoustic detector or species identification process. The goal is to combine a large number of datasets so both prominent and more subtle patterns in the data can be explored. https://batmanagement.com/pages/batamp-bat-acoustic-monitoring-portal
North American Bat Monitoring Program
NABat is an international and interagency program that aims to conserve North American bat populations by providing standardized survey protocols and data from across the continent. https://www.nabatmonitoring.org/
North American Bat Tracker
Report bat sightings using the North American Bat Tracker, and help biologists document the location and health of existing bat colonies. Document your bat sightings! IMPORTANT!! Do not touch bats! Provide a picture of the bat and/or a picture of the habitat you see bats using. Provide the location and time Note the the weather conditions Note what the bats are doing, i.e., hunting over open meadow, flying under tree canopy, hanging on a window screen, drinking from a pond, etc. Note how many bats you see in one setting. www.projectnoah.org/missions/18306114
BAT DETECTORS
Discover the world of bats with a bat detector. Bats hunt insects at night, using a high frequency system called echolocation. Bat calls are usually pitched at too high a frequency for humans to hear naturally - but they can be heard or recorded using a bat detector. Individual bat species emit calls with specific characteristics related to their size, flight behavior, environment, and prey types. This means that with the aid of bat detectors we can identify many species by listening to their calls or recording them for sound analysis on a computer. https://www.bats.org.uk/about-bats/bat-detectors-1/bat-detectors
- Echo Meter Touch 2: Bat Detection and Analysis for Your Ios Devices!
Turn your smartphone or tablet into an active bat detector. Capture high-quality recordings superior to those generated by more expensive bat detectors. A low-noise microphone, ultrasonic horn, and sophisticated technology significantly reduce unwanted noise (e.g., electronic “hiss,” recording echoes, and ambient sound) and eliminate recordings that don’t include bat sounds. Advanced algorithms display the most likely species of bat vocalizing nearby.
https://www.wildlifeacoustics.com/products/echo-meter-touch-2-android-2
https://scistarter.com/tools/59
FUN STUFF – Permission to go batty!!!
My Compliments to the Bat
Bat Cams & Video
Bat Mythology
Bat Pollinator Activity Book
www.igb.illinois.edu/sites/default/files/uploads/Bat%20Pollinator%20Activity%20Book.pdf
Coloring Pages
Build a Bat House
It’s important to know that bat boxes must meet certain criteria to be effective.
A bat house should be at least 24” high x 16” wide. Smaller bat houses do not offer adequate thermal stability.
A bat house should not contain fabric or mesh. Roosting boards and landing pads should consist of roughened wood.
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