A few pictures

Here are a few pictures of bats that we caught last summer.  I thought the pictures might give us some hope that spring will eventually arrive!! 

                                                    This is us putting up the nets to catch the bats, they are 24 feet high!

Below is a Big Brown Bat, this was the most common bat captured.



An Eastern Red Bat, my pesonal favorite!

We also caught Little Brown Bats, I am worried about this species in particular because of the devastating effects of White Nose Syndrome.  This is a fungus that attacks the bats in caves and mines where they are hibernating.  It grows on the skin and fur of the bats, causing them to wake up too much from hibernation and starve to death.  In some caves there is 99% mortality!!

We also use equipment to "hear" the bats.  We use something called an Anabat, it slows down their high frequency echolocation calls. With this information we can determine the species making the call.  We have heard 8 different species!