With Halloween just around the corner, Bat Awareness Week kicks off today spotlighting research into the behavior of these nocturnal animals. To that end, nongame biologists with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department survey, research, and track bats across the state. Recently, Bat Biologist Laura Beard and her technicians have placed radio transmitters on bats in the Lander Region. They are working to track these bats to the intermediary roosts used during migration, and their winter roosts. The researchers are already learning new information about the structures bats use on their route to hibernate for the winter. Then, understanding where bats spend the winter and the environmental conditions in their winter roosts are critical to monitoring white-nose syndrome. White-nose syndrome is a fungal disease that kills hibernating bats by causing them to burn through their energy reserves too quickly, dying of either starvation or exposure when they leave their hibernacula during winter to search for food. Given the potential impacts of white-nose on bat populations in Wyoming, Wyoming Game and Fish is using a combination of radio-tracking and winter acoustic surveys to better understand habitat use of Wyoming bats during this critical time of year.
photo credit: Leandra Boodoo, Wyoming Natural Diversity Database
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