Volunteer night owls needed for Shuswap bat count

Starting on June 1, biologists and volunteers will also become nocturnal, putting in late nights counting the critters at what are essentially bat maternity wards throughout the province.

"Female bats roost together in summer and raise their young in maternity colonies," Anna Skurikhina, Shuswap coordinator of the BC Community Bat Program, said in a May 2 media release. "They generally only have one pup per female in June."

The males, who do not help with raising their young, usually roost by themselves and find bachelor pads in large trees, rock cliffs or barns and buildings.

For the annual count, participants sit outside a bat maternity roost at sunset and spend an hour counting all the bats that come out of it. Last year, volunteers conducted 888 bat counts at 274 different roosts across the province.

"The data collected is really important as it helps us know how the bat populations are doing in B.C.," Skurikhina said. "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."

Started in 2012, the Annual Bat Count is the only long-term monitoring program focused on summer roosts in B.C., and helps biologists monitor bat populations and track changes or recovery of species. If populations decline, it could indicate impacts from white-nose syndrome (WNS). The fungus that causes the disease was detected around Grand Forks in 2022, but WNS itself hasn't yet been found in B.C.

"(At the) majority of the roost sites we count house bat species like Little Brown Myotis and Yuma Myotis, both of which are susceptible to white-nose syndrome,"Skurikhina added.

These creatures of the night are key predators of many insects, are essential parts of the ecosystem and provide billions of dollars in economic benefits by helping control agricultural, forest and urban pests.

Learn more, report a bat colony or sign up to help with the count at www.bcbats.ca, shuswap@bcbats.ca or 1-855-922-2287 ext. 24.

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