On May 17, Radford University biology professor Karen Francl, her graduate students, and Jane Rodrigue banded the big brown bats that reside on the side of our house. That bat house has been on our house about 20 years and has bats every year except when white nose nosema was first detected in a local cave (the first incidence in Virginia). It was vacant for two years and then occupied by the big brown bats. Perhaps, it had little brown bats before because they have suffered the most from nosema (95% mortality) while big brown bats are mostly unaffected.
I took a few photos which the researchers are welcome to use for their presentations. I found the close ups of the bats fascinating. The colony is maternal with at least one baby bat which they called a pup. I think there are several more now as I hear them in the bat house while the mothers are out foraging and drinking water at night. The researchers plan to come back in July to measure and count the population again. They counted 15 but at least one went back up into the house.
i could just faint.
ReplyDeleteThat is soooooo cool!
ReplyDeletePretty cool read here. Never had any luck with a bat house getting residents. We have seen bats over our pond even during winter here in Durham, NC.
ReplyDeleteThanks for helping out the bat population in Va! We tried for several years to attract bats to our [bat] house with no luck, so am happy to see that you are successful. I would love to have some around to munch on mosquitoes!
ReplyDeleteI have a bat house and hope hang it after some research to find out the best location. I did not realize that sometimes bat houses are left vacant. I am glad yours is a success.
ReplyDeleteOh that bat seemed to be starving! Were there more bats inside the bat house? I hope you guys were able to really help out the bat population. Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteSelena Slough