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Island Bats & Long Nights Mark Start Of Long-Term Survey

Georgia Department of Natural Resources

SOCIAL CIRCLE, Ga. --(Ammoland.com)- State wildlife biologist Trina Morris and interns Julia Nawrocki and Craig Bland found a bat honey hole on Cumberland Island last month.

The trio, with help from interns at the National Seashore, set up 20-foot-tall mist-nets over a small water hole on the island and caught and released more than 100 bats in one night.

“It was like Bat Central,” Morris said recently with a grin.

The processing of bat species, weights and other details that kept the researchers busy deep into the hot, buggy night is central to a State Wildlife Grants project focused on Georgia’s bats. For more than a decade, the federal grants program has been the main funding source to help states keep common species common and protect others before they become critically imperiled and more costly to recover.

Morris, of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Nongame Conservation Section, and the interns visited seven islands, netting bats and setting up routes for the Anabat, technology that identifies bats by their echolocation calls. Netting helps confirm what the Anabat records.

“It’s the beginning of a long-term project to look at yellow bats specifically and Coastal Plain bats in general,” Morris said.

The No. 1 question for yellow bats is whether low catch rates mean they are elusive or simply “there aren’t many in the landscape,” Morris explained. Researchers caught one in the seven-island trip.

Ga. DNR intern Julia Nawrocki and a yellow bat netted on Cumberland. Credit: Katrina Morris/Ga. DNR

Northern yellow bats are a high-priority species in the State Wildlife Action Plan, the strategy guiding DNR efforts to conserve biological diversity. Scientists are working to learn more about this coastal bat in Georgia, including how rare it is. More information is also needed on the state’s other 15 bat species. Bats help control insects and fill other vital roles in healthy ecosystems. Yet these flying mammals face significant threats, from habitat loss to white-nose syndrome. White-nose has killed more than 1 million cave-dwelling bats and been documented in 17 states from Maine to North Carolina, but not Georgia.

The State Wildlife Grants project Morris is leading will build on previous surveys, plus the work of former DNR interns who examined yellow bat roosting habitats on Sapelo Island and the habitat associations of foraging bats on barrier islands.

Morris said the Anabat project also feeds into a national effort that could result in a citizen scientist monitoring network, much like the successful public-powered surveys for amphibians and birds.

STATE WILDLIFE GRANTS
Since 2000, the State Wildlife Grants program has been the main funding source to help keep common species common and protect others before they become critically imperiled and more costly to recover from the brink of extinction. Administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, these grants enable DNR and its conservation partners to protect wildlife and wild places to maintain the state’s natural heritage.

GIVING WILDLIFE A CHANCE
The sandhills project is another example of how buying a nongame license plate or donating to the Georgia Wildlife Conservation Fund through the state income tax checkoff and other ways supports wildlife conservation. Contributions benefit DNR’s Nongame Conservation Section, which receives no state general funds for its mission to conserve wildlife not legally hunted, fished for or trapped, as well as rare plants and natural habitats in the state.

For more information, visit www.georgiawildlife.com/conservation or call Nongame Conservation offices in Social Circle (770-761-3035), Forsyth (478-994-1438) or Brunswick (912-264-7218). For details on The Environmental Resources Network, or TERN, a nonprofit advocacy group for Nongame Conservation, call the Forsyth office or go to http://tern.homestead.com.

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Wild Bat Blitz Coming
Family education night kicks off research event at Fort Mountain State Park.

Wild Bat Blitz Coming

Georgia Department of Natural Resources

SOCIAL CIRCLE, Ga. --(Ammoland.com)- The ninth annual Bat Blitz, hosted by the Georgia Wildlife Resources Division in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and the Southeastern Bat Diversity Network, is set for July 25-29, 2010, at Fort Mountain State Park near Chatsworth.

The blitz provides an opportunity for researchers, management biologists and students from federal and state agencies, universities, and industry to exchange information and develop strategies for studying bat communities.

The event kicks off with a family-friendly education night at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, July 25. Admission is free but there is a $5 park pass fee to park.

The bat blitz involves intense surveys – three nights of mist netting at 30-40 sites, acoustic sampling and other techniques – to look at the species composition and prevalence of bats on state and federal lands within an hour of Fort Mountain. Base camp will be at the park.

“The bat blitz brings researchers together from around the eastern U.S. to sample a large area in a short period of time,” said Trina Morris, a wildlife biologist with the Wildlife Resources Division, part of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

“It provides a great opportunity to teach people about bats and survey techniques and to learn more about the bats in the area.”

Small insectivorous bats like the species found in Georgia can eat more than 1,000 mosquito-sized insects in an hour. Other species of bats around the world serve important roles as pollinators of crops such as bananas and mangoes.

Georgia is home to 16 bat species, all of which seek a sheltered roost during the day and emerge at night to eat flying insects such as moths, mosquitoes and beetles. Some species, such as the gray bat and Southeastern myotis, depend upon suitable caves for roosting. Others, such as big brown bats and evening bats, are more adaptable and use hollow trees and buildings. Red bats and Seminole bats conceal themselves in foliage.

All Georgia bats use echolocation, a biological sonar system, to find food and avoid obstacles while flying rapidly in the darkness.

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