Alberta Community Bat Program/Western Bat Program 🦇

Skeena Region Bat Conservation Workshop and Forum Registration Bats are unique, long-lived mammals that play vital roles in ecosystems and represent a significant component of British Columbia’s biodiversity, with 17 species found in the province. Bats are increa...

Our Western Canada Bat Program Team is offering a couple of FREE bat workshops in Northern BC next week! Please register to participate. #SkeenaRegion #BC 🦇🌎🧪🦊
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Absolutely!

I should add - we will be monitoring bats to try to assess the effect of this treatment. We swabbed bat wings prior to applying the probiotic and are targeting sites where we have a pretty good handle on bat numbers.

Honestly, we don't expect that is will offer a "cure" to white-nose syndrome. It may, however, improve survival rates for infected bats - even if the mortality rates were to be reduced by 20% - that would be huge for our bat populations!

As deadly fungus spreads, Alberta turns to probiotics to save dwindling bat population | CBC News Eighteen bat houses in southern Alberta have been sprayed with a probiotic cocktail, aimed at preventing white-nose syndrome — a disease that’s killed millions of bats across North America.

More details on our #BreakingNews re: the application of the probiotic to WNS-infected Alberta bats. 🦇🌎🧪🦊
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Alberta tries new treatment to save declining bat population The province is using a new probiotic in an attempt to prevent a fungal disease that's killed millions of bats across North America. (Photo credit: Jason Headley)

@albertabats.bsky.social

That 🤩 feeling you get when ppl who trained in the same lab as you are portrayed in the media for their meaningful work.

IMO Prof Robert Barclay has been one of the world’s most influential mentors for bat conservation professionals.

www.cbc.ca/player/play/...

Alberta tries new treatment to save declining bat population The province is using a new probiotic in an attempt to prevent a fungal disease that's killed millions of bats across North America. (Photo credit: Jason Headley)

Exciting news in Alberta! Our @wcscanada.org Western Bat Team developed a probiotic treatment to help improve survival rates for bats facing white-nose syndrome. We have applied it for the 1st time outside of the study area! 🦇
www.cbc.ca/player/play/...

"What do bats smell like?" 🦇

That was the question we received from a young supporter who donated her birthday money to bat conservation (how amazing is that?!) 🧵👇

📸 Jason Headley

YouTube video by Raffi - Topic Robin In The Rain

@raffic.bsky.social already has a song for the Robin! youtu.be/QB-rD24ikMk?...

a man in a suit and tie is standing in front of a building Alt: a man in a suit and tie is standing in front of a building yelling, "youths!"

Teenagers!

Clearwing Moth resting on a raspberry leaf. Moth body is black, legs are orange, wings are clear with black veins and edges and black antennae. Photo: S.Holroyd.

Or a Clearwing moth on some leaves? Feel free to use the photo for inspiration if you are looking for something.

Oh good to know! Thanks for the note!

Bat World Sanctuary BAT WORLD SANCTUARY The Largest Bat Sanctuary on Earth Bat World Sanctuary is on the front line to end the mistreatment of bats. Each year we rescue hundreds of bats […]

batworld.org has a directory map that flags bat carers.

This bat may need care. It looks like a young one and in an exposed roosting position - it is at risk for being preyed upon by avian predators or domestic cats. It's difficult to assess from this photo - but dark fur often indicates a youngster (unless it is a dark-furred species). see batworld.org

aka lek?😜

WCS Wild View: Hammer-headed Bat Family This photo captures one of the larger bat pups we’ve ever seen practically Velcroed to mom. –Sarah H. Olson. Photo by ©Vincent Munster.

Sarah Olson is part of our global WCS bat team & has worked with this species (often it is her photos that get posted about Hammerheaded bats) - found a nice post about the females (who do fly with their babies, unlike our insectivorous bats). 🦇@wcs.org @wcscanada.org
blog.wcs.org/photo/2018/1...

YouTube video by Mammalwatching Hammer-headed Bat Lek in Sierra Leone. What a racket!

The song of the Hammerhead! They also will commandeer hollow trees that help amplify the song! A "lek" is (usually) a group of males "performing" to impress a mate. Hence, "the chorus". Nature is amazing. BTW - the females look much more demure! 🦇
youtu.be/BLm6YVFvNG8?...

Grote's Bertholdia (Bertholdia trigona) - a triangular shaped moth against a white background. The moth has an orange thorax and orange on the edge of the wings and on its legs. Wings have yellow patches with black dots - trailing edge of the wings is orange with black dots. Antennae are long, slender and grey. This species has tymbals that they use to make sounds that jam bat sonar. See youtube video for noises.

It's #MOTHWEEK!
DYK - some moths have special organs called "tymbals" that they can use to make sounds that "jam" the sonar of hunting bats? Here is the sounds they generate, a video showing a tymbal and the moth that makes the sound (image by drosera69, iNaturalist). 🦇
youtu.be/SJGrkXGTSLg?...

Image of a Long-eared Myotis - blonde fur and very long dark ears, dark face and wings. Mouth is slightly open - likely it is echolocating. Text reads Long-eared Myotis Happy Baturday Long ears for listening, this species is a gleaner! Logo WCS Canada Alberta Community Bat Program albertabats.ca

#HappyBaturday!
Long-eared Myotis live in prairie rock crevices & mountain tree & rock roosts. They glean moths off surfaces. As a western species, they’re just starting to encounter white-nose syndrome—we're watching closely to see if they will be affected. 🦇
#AlbertaBats #Moths #BatsNeedFriends

That is the biggest pear tree I've ever seen in my life!

This happens. I suspect woodpeckers knock on the box & it sounds hollow - which makes them think it must be a tree that is rotten & with a cavity & bugs. I've seen people wrap the outside with chicken wire. I think that may help. They can be persistent though!

Baby 🦇 season got us like 🥱

#bats #arizona #wildanimals #cuteanimals #wildlife

Background is a summer night sky - foreground is a bat flying awkwardly with two wings fully extended forward (image is a Tricolored Bat by Charles Francis). Text reads - young bats are flying, awkward flyer alert! There could be crashes and odd landings! Logo WCS Canada Alberta Community Bat Program - see albertabats.ca/foundabat

Young bats are taking their first flights! You might spot one grounded or clinging to a wall—likely just tired, not sick. Never touch with bare hands. Need help? albertabats.ca/foundabat or batworld.org/local-rescue 🦇 #FirstFlights #BabyBats #BatsNeedFriends #GrowingUpFast

TIL - that birders classify Towhees as a sparrow. Neat! Bat people often run into Towhees it seems. We often net in gaps next to shrubby habitat and bits of forest. They are usually in the understory doing their "two-foot shuffle" business. #NotABear (even had one in the bat net once)!

Oooooooh! During my early bat-years in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia - the "snake-guy" (aka grad student working on snakes) caught a little one of these & I got to hold it! Highlight for me! Just an adorable snake! Rate this one as a 10/10 snake.

We have additional information (& free bat house plans) on our website at www.albertabats.ca/bathouses

YouTube video by Alberta Bats Supporting Alberta's Bats: The Role of Bat Boxes in Conservation

Do you love bats? And live in a relatively urban area that has urban parks or wetlands nearby? Considering putting up a bat house? You may be in the right kind of habitat to successfully install one & support some bats! See our video to understand how to best support bats. 🦇
youtu.be/BhJZjQBonkE?...

Niiiice!

Interestingly - the building-users will often take up a bat house if there isn't another available building nearby. Another study in Calgary found a colony was moving between bat houses, trees and buildings. Little Browns are especially flexible. Which is actually in their favour or surviving WNS!

Yes - which is why we mention "green tree recruitment". You need the in-between aged trees that will be the future wildlife trees! Sometimes land managers forget this. I've seen parks with very old trees but the understory is repeatedly cleared - so no new trees have been developing! No bueno!