BATS!!

A Big Brown bat

 Our first few nights of mist netting proved to be VERY successful! We captured lots of big brown bats, much like we did last year.   We also caught eastern red bats last year, but this year we have already caught twice as many, and most have been pregnant females.

An Eastern Red bat

What we have been really fortunate to net are species that we did not catch last year...including A northern long-eared and a Tri-colored (this bat had a recent change in common name, it used to be referred to as an Eastern Pipistrille).

Tri-colored bat..isn't that the cutest face ever!

Northern Long-eared..look at those long ears!

The northern long-eared bat can be difficult to capture because of their habit of staying in very forested areas.  They are very similar to little brown bats in physical characteristics, the only way to tell them apart is their long ears and very pointed tragus (the little part right inside their ear).  The United States Fish and Wildlife was recently petitioned to have the northern long-eared bat listed as endangered, so the fact that we have a breeding population of these bats is great! 

We have also been on the lookout for the effects off White-Nose Syndrome.  If bats were infected with the fungus, but survived the winter, they might show signs of wing damage, but our bats look great!!

We will continue to net throughout July and use the data to confirm the presence of the species that we have already detected with our acoustic monitors.  We are still on the look at for the largest bat in Ohio, the hoary bat (so called for the hoary, or frosted appearance of their fur), the evening bat and the silver-haired bat.