Searching for Bats Video

I recently spent some time with wildlife biologists out on Antelope Island as they were trapping and surveying bats. It was a great experience, especially since I used to spend my summers working on bat research projects while in college.

Watch the video below:

Bat Blitz

After several months without regular internet access, I'm finally getting a chance to update the blog.  I just left an amazing week at the Southeastern Bat Diversity Network's Bat Blitz. For the 10th year in a row scientists and students from around the country gathered for four days of intensive bat counting. This year's blitz was in the Pisgah National Forest in the mountains of North Carolina. Enjoy.

Volunteers at the SBDN Bat Blitz remove a bat from a temporary net trap. The bats are measured and tagged before being released.

Sybill Amelon sets up a mist net for trapping bats.

A tag is attached to the wing of a captured bat.

Anna Zack measures a captured eastern red bat.

After being tagged and measured, a bat is held up for release.

Clarissa Starbuck and Sybill Amelon finish setting up a temporary net for trapping bats over a creek near the Blue Ridge Parkway.

A bat taking off after being tagged and measured.

The blog will be returning to non bat related material soon. I'll be filling in gaps from the summer over the next few days and weeks. Unfortunately for my photo editing, but fortunately for me, the next week is overflowing with photo work with the Center for Plant Conservation in California. Stay tuned for pictures from there and the rest of the summer.

Trapping Bats

Had one of the most interesting nights I've had on a job last week. In addition to the regular bat counts, we spent two nights trapping bats in Northeast Missouri. While numerous bats where caught, the project was mainly to look at the roosting habitats of the endangered Indiana bats. After being caught and measured, the bats were attached with radios and followed for several days to find where they were roosting.

Sybill Amelon trims the hair off of the back of an Indiana bat in order to attach a small radio.