The B.C. Community Bat Program is calling for volunteers to get involved in the annual B.C. bat count.
Starting June 1, bat biologists and volunteers will be enjoying late nights, counting bats at maternity roosts throughout the province.
“It’s an amazing experience, staying up until the darkness sets in while counting bats,” says Ali Waterhouse, the Cariboo Region’s coordinator for the B.C. Community Bat Program. “All your senses come alive at dusk. You hear the birds quieting down, see the light disappearing and the stars starting to shine, your skin feels the coolness of the night.”
Female bats roost together in summer and raise their young in maternity colonies. Most of the species of bats in B.C. only have one pup per female.
Pups are born in June and learn to fly in about three to six weeks depending on the species. The males do not help with raising the young and usually roost by themselves in large trees, rock cliffs, boulder fields, or barns and buildings.
“The annual bat count involves sitting outside a bat maternity roost at sunset, and for an hour, counting all the bats that come out of that roost to forage for insects,” says Waterhouse.
Last year, volunteers conducted 1,089 counts at 268 roost sites across the province.
“The data collected is really important as it helps us know how the bat populations are doing in B.C.,” says Waterhouse. “We usually do four bat counts at every roost site – two in June to count just the females and two more starting mid-July when the pups are learning to fly.”
Begun in 2012, the annual bat count is the only long-term monitoring program focussed on bat summer roosts in B.C. The counts help biologists monitor bat populations and track impacts to or recovery of species. If populations decline, it could indicate impacts from white-nose syndrome (WNS), a fungal disease that has decimated bat populations in eastern Canada and United States. The fungus that causes WNS was detected in 2022 in the Grand Forks region of B.C., but WNS itself has not been detected yet in B.C.
Bats in B.C. are key predators of many night-flying insects. They are essential parts of the province's ecosystems and provide billions of dollars of economic benefit by helping control agricultural, forest, and urban insect pests.
Please report a bat colony or sign up to help with bat counts at www.bcbats.ca, cariboo@bcbats.ca, or 1-855-922-2287 ext. 22. In partnership with the B.C. Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, the B.C. Community Bat Program provides information and promotes local stewardship and citizen science.
The program runs thanks to funding from the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation, BC Conservation Foundation, and many regional partners (West Fraser Plywood, Williams Lake RONA, and Smith Timberworks). You can find out more about the B.C. Community Bat Program and options for helping local bat populations at www.bcbats.ca.
If you would like to become a volunteer bat counter or learn more, please join us for a brief meeting at the Scout Island Nature Center on Tuesday, May 20th at 7 p.m.
