Narrator: Welcome to park science at homestead what's today's topic?
Chris: I would say roosting and foraging habits of northern long-eared bats in an
agriculturally dominated landscape
Narrator: or Bat Study!
Meet UNL grad student
and project lead Christopher Phil
Bat biologist, Ben Hale
and field technician and bat joke enthusiast, Anna Oetting
Christopher placed acoustic detectors that record bats echolocation calls
throughout the park
Chris: All the surrounding are areas of the park are agriculture,Â so bats might take refuge
in a place like this and the other acoustics i'm putting them
out in different corn fields soÂ what bats are present and how
far the different species that I pick up
venture into corn fields
Narrator: One bat can eat thousands of insects in a single night
Bats help farmers savingÂ farmers billions of dollars
in pesticides yearly
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Bat Map!
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Narrator: The acoustic data collected helped Christopher map areas of bat activity
within the park boundaries to decide mist net locations to capture bats
Once the nets are set, the team prepares equipment
and will check nets throughout the night
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Bat Extract!
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Ben: So here the bat is perfectly in the bag of the net
this is where the extra slack kindÂ of falls over this tighter line
and so the way that we get them out is
we just take them out the way that they went in
so you always grab the tail first
and then the belly, and then the head,
and the first thing that went that goes
into the net is the wingsÂ so that's what we work on
last and there we go
okay so this part, this is kind of the cool part
this is like a little bat sleeping bag
it's just a cloth bag that we
put the bats in for transport and for weighing
it allows the bat to have some really naturalÂ Â
posturing in there
it's almost like a little tree
so they can clip onto theÂ side and hang upside down
in a position that's comfortable for them
you can see he's just in there hanging
like a bat so it's pretty easy to just turn the bag inside out
and bring the bat out
it's like a really safe way to store
and get the bat in and out
Narrator: Bat Stats!
With over eight nights of mist netting
the team had luck catching and releasing
28 evening bats
14 big brown bats
seven eastern red bats
one hoary bat
and five northern long-eared bats
data was collected on each before they
were released like what specie and sex each bat is
their size and weight, capture location and each bat is carefully checked for
signs of white nose syndrome
Ben: So i think that this is an adultÂ bat that's been through white nose
that's the first one that we've seen
Narrator: And since northern long-eared bats were caught, a threatened specie
Radio transmitters were fitted to each bat's back for further study
Bat track!
Ben: This is a radio transmitter that we attach to bats
so you take little tiny scissors and trim the hair in between the two
shoulder blades on a bat and then you put a little bit of skin bond glue
it kind of looks like this as it's drying it stays really tacky and
sticky and you basically just press that into a
little spot of glue andÂ then you fold the hair over
and that stays for about one to two weeks
Narrator: With radio tags in place on five northern long-ears
Anna sets off to drive park boundaries
and surrounding areas to see if any of the
bat signals can be picked up
once a signal has been found, the team
searches to find the roosting location of each individual
A signal was picked up
this bat in particular wasÂ not roosting in the park
with permission from the landowner the team walks to a burnt out snag
near the riparian forest line which also runs through the park
the northern long-eared bat is found sleeping under a bit of bark
the fishing line like antenna can be seen sticking out
Ben takes a thermal image and the bat is revealed
That evening the northern leaves its roost to forage in the neighboring
cornfield and at Homestead
through further tracking and study
the team assesses that northern
long-eared bats are roosting in the park boundaries as well
these two located in a park structure
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Bat strat-egy and planning!
This project demonstratedÂ that the threatened northernÂ Â
long-eared bats
are using Homestead to roost travel and to forage
it has also shown that white nose syndrome
is present in the area
this information helps theÂ park as it works to protect
and maintain valuable habitat for the
bat species that occur in this area
and will help the park with
decisions of how to maintain its natural resources
for future generations of bats and visitors alike
Anna: What's the first thing that bats learn in school?
The alpha-BAT!
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because no one else is laughing i have to support myself