A University of Wisconsin-Madison collective is working to establish a long-term data set of little brown bat populations on campus with national implications for conservation.
The UW-Madison Bat Brigade is a collaboration between students, professionals and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to monitor and study bats on campus. The Brigade is part of Biocore, an honors biology program.
Bat Brigade founder and advisor Seth McGee said the group gathers data on bat population sizes, migration patterns and habitat use, with a bat population located near Picnic Point. The group uses tools like echolocation recorders and thermal imaging cameras to capture information about bat size and location. The Brigade also collects data by conducting emergence surveys, counting bats as they leave their roosts and acoustic monitoring, recording animals’ calls for species identification.
Statewide and national bat monitoring efforts use the Brigade’s data, supporting nationwide bat recovery efforts.
One of McGee’s favorite ways to collect data is through night hikes.
“You can’t beat a fun night hike,” McGee told The Daily Cardinal. “When you’re trekking through the Lakeshore Preserve after hours with a headlamp and a bat recorder, you can’t help but feel like you’re on a scientific adventure — kind of like Indiana Jones, or maybe Batman would be a more appropriate analogy.”
The Brigade’s next bat walk is Oct. 25 at 6:30 p.m. along Picnic Point and is open to the public.
McGee said anyone is able to join the Bat Brigade, as their mission is centered on student engagement in bat conservation and research.
“We’re always happy to train new volunteers on how to use the bat recording equipment and orient them to the Lakeshore survey route,” McGee said.
Bats are integral members of the statewide and global ecosystems they live in, providing services like pest control, seed pollination and seed dispersal. According to the United States Fish and Wildlife service, bats eat enough pests across all national agricultural production to save more than $3 billion annually.
Bats are also the lone pollinators for the agave plant, a main ingredient in tequila. Through their fruit consumption, they also account for nearly 95% of the seed dispersal responsible for early growth in recently-cleared rainforests.
In Wisconsin, bat populations and their ecosystem services are severely threatened by habitat destruction and climate change. Destruction and degradation of habitats used for bat roosting and reproduction are significant concerns for endangered bat populations. Additionally, severe weather events are becoming more frequent, which can disrupt the timing of bat migration, causing a mismatch between the bat population and food resources.
Bats in Wisconsin are also threatened by White Nose Syndrome, a fungal infection that has killed millions of bats in the United States since its discovery in the early 2000s. The fungus is transmitted from bat to bat, cave to bat and cave to cave, as humans unintentionally carry the fungus on shoes or equipment when entering. Many bats hibernate in the same caves over the winter, meaning the fungus has the potential to exterminate an entire bat colony once introduced.
“Bats are in trouble in Wisconsin, and the UW Bat Brigade is working to provide boots-on-the-ground data collection, research support and public education to contribute to their survival and recovery,” McGee said.
