Winging It: The 2015 Bat Count

Citizen science is critical to spotted bat monitoring in Eastern sagelands

Written and Photographed by Cailin Mackenzie, GLOBE Intern

Twenty-four committed volunteers gathered on July 25th to count bats at the Conservancy’s Moses Coulee preserve, home to the largest concentration of spotted bats in the state.  Collecting this data not only furthers white nose syndrome research and treatment, but also informs wind turbine impacts on bat migration. Although the wind made hearing the bats’ distinctive clicking noises difficult, we enjoyed a meditative evening under the stars surrounded by the coulee’s unique shrub-steppe ecosystem.