Alberta Community Bat Program/Western Bat Program 🦇

YouTube video by Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Canada Alberta's first probiotic trial to protect bats

🦇#NewVideo!
An update on white-nose syndrome in Alberta and the application of probiotics for the first time (outside of the initial experiment). We will try to keep updating on this story. The plan is to return to this site in spring for bat capture & assessment.
youtu.be/PU2ZnUvwvVY?...

a cartoon character from the simpsons is standing in front of a row of lockers Alt: a cartoon character from the simpsons is standing in front of a row of lockers waving hello

We've got bats! 🦇😁

I find them variable in their temperament! We caught a few very fat females last summer who were v. feisty! But I've caught others that were super laid back. Not like Little Browns who are consistent! LOL! They seem to take a long time to warmup for release, more than some bats, in my experience!

Loooooong-eared! 😍

White-nose Syndrome (The Roost Report #005) - Alberta Community Bat Program Our fifth edition of The Roost Report highlights white-nose syndrome and our latest monitoring work in Alberta. Roost Reports 005: White-nose Syndrome by Cory Olson

🦇🧪🌎After a gap of a couple of busy months - we are back with edition #005 of "The Roost Report" - this issue features a basic backgrounder on white-nose syndrome & Pd, and the ways we have been sampling for both.
www.albertabats.ca/white-nose-s...

🧪🌎

🦇NEW REPORT! WCS Canada Western Bat Team & partners:

Insuk, C., et al. 2025. Probiotic prophylaxis for white-nose syndrome – Testing use of a probiotic to reduce bat mortality caused by white-nose syndrome. 7 Nov. 2025, Synthesis Report. DOI: doi.org/10.19121/202...

Post card created by the WNS committee - https://www.whitenosesyndrome.org/resources/afd06c44-b7cb-4cc5-94f6-dc3e03f94664 Text reads: Don't give the fungus a free ride - protect bats from white-nose syndrome. When visiting caves, mines or bat roosts... Bring with you: Towel or scrub brush, change of clothing/footwear, trash bags, disinfecting wipes. On site: 1. Brush off or wipe dirt and debris. 2 Swap dirty clothes for clean ones. 3. Bag used clothes, shoes and gear for cleaning. 4. Wipe down gear with disinfecting wipes. 5. Bag and toss disposables. Off site: Non-washable gear - Clean with disinfecting wipes or 70% isopropyl alcohol. Washable Gear - 1. Clean off dirt and debris. 2. Wash on hot with detergent. 3. Soak in 55C(131F) water for 5 minutes OR in 1:10 disinfecting bleach* to water for 10 minutes. 4. Rinse and dry. Footnotes - For disease information and full decontamination protocol including tested products - visit whitenosesyndrome.org Protocol users are responsible for reading and following all product labels. Check gear recommendations before applying cleaners.

🦇Great new "decon postcard" from whitenosesyndrome.org you can find it under resources in the decon folder (or at this link www.whitenosesyndrome.org/resources/af... )

Image of a heart and a jar of coins with coins spread around on the surface around the jar. On the right is a bat flying against a black background (image: Brock and Sherri Fenton). Text reads Support bats, Giving Tuesday, Matching Donations 2nd of December - WCS Canada logo, Alberta Community Bat Program - www.albertabats.ca/donate

A HUGE % of Canadians appreciate and want to conserve nature and natural habitats but only a SMALL % of us actually donate funds to support that work. It's GIVING TUESDAY - a time to contribute towards conservation work. This year, donations will be matched! (up to $20k) #JustDoIt

Urban bats avoid street lights when commuting between their roosts and foraging grounds Some bat species seek shelter during the day in the attics of large, mostly historic buildings within human settlements, even though they forage for insects at night in the dark surrounding countrysid...

🦇 in the news!

#bats #lovebats #urbanwildlife

Urban bats avoid street lights when commuting between their roosts and foraging grounds share.google/RNp1fTDImn78...

We don't need that many bat boxes! LOL! But bats would benefit with dark sky friendly lighting options, educational programming about bats & ways to conserve habitat & support insect prey. THAT would be amazing!

To be clear - we aren't "anti-wind energy" - we just want more operational rules to minimize the number of bats being killed.

Text reads "Happy Baturday" logo WCS Canada Alberta Community Bat Program www.albertabats.ca Image is from Wood Buffalo National Park in Alberta where bats are seen hibernating in a cave. Bats are lined up along a cave overhang and stacked in rows. This site is still free of white-nose syndrome as of fall 2025. Photo: Cori Lausen (entry to this site is restricted and controlled by Parks Canada).

🦇#HappyBaturday! A cold, snowy day today in Alberta! We hope the bats at this site in Wood Buffalo National Park are still hibernating safely as seen in this image! Entry into bat hibernation sites is highly restricted. Biologists limit their own entry but visits happen as part of monitoring.

It's a first step. Behavioural studies are tricky and require both creativity and objective scientific design. Bats are dying every year regardless and that number increases with increasing wind development. The estimate for North America is 1million bats die every year. That has to go down.

I suppose what might next be useful would be to experimentally manipulate the paint colour and see if it makes a difference?

wind turbines in open habitat - turbines are all white - white rotors - white tower - white nacelle.

Huh. Yeah. Wild right?

Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild:

🦇Hoary Bat
🦇Silver-haired Bat
🦇Eastern Red Bat (but also found on the west coast)
🦇Spotted Bat
🦇Pallid Bat

Bats flying through a Y-maze are visually attracted to wind turbine surfaces | Biology Letters Wind energy’s rapid expansion has led to unintended consequences for wildlife, with migratory bats among the species most at risk. The behavioural mechanisms underlying collisions remain poorly unders...

Oh it is too! You can get there via the Google Scholar button though...

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10....

That IS one of the mitigation options! A large # of bats are killed during the 8-week migration window (Aug/Sept). And only at night - during low wind, warm nights with no rain. SMART curtailment monitors to trigger shut down when bats are detected (but not all bats echolocate while migrating).

Nice bit of writing! Thanks for creating it!

Fatal attraction: migratory bats are lured to wind turbine blades Wind turbines are important for global energy production because of their low greenhouse gas emissions. However, for unknown reasons, many migratory bats are colliding with the wind turbine blades, le...

🦇Fatal attraction: migratory bats are lured to wind turbine blades url: journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...

🦇But...also bats...
#PardonMe #Ooops

youtube.com/clip/UgkxCY7...

Image of a woman walking away from the camera with long hair flying in the wind (fr CANVA) - with an image of a small bat flying in the upper right corner of the photo. Text reads "Bats do not get tangled in your hair" albertabats.ca WCS Canada logo - Alberta Community Bat Program

🦇A lot of people think bats try to “get tangled in your hair.”
Nope. These animals fly with precision that would make any fighter pilot jealous. If a bat brushes past you, it chose that line on purpose - and it could’ve flown through a smaller gap if it wanted to.

Image of a Northern Long-eared Bat with a mealworm in its mouth on the left (by Chris Godwin) and an image of a man holding two chicken wings while making "duck face". Text reads albertabats.ca

Bat fact: Bats eat their body weight in insects every night. That’s the equivalent of a 180-lb guy crushing 180 lbs of chicken wings before sunrise. Respect the efficiency.

Photo of a Silver-haired Bat in flight by Brock and Sherri Fenton. Image text reads Pest Control - albertabats.ca Logo WCS Canada Alberta Community Bat Program - included are images of moths, a potato beetle and a leaf with eggs on it. Not all moths are pests but bats eat them all and it does impact the bottom line for costs to agriculture.

🦇Here’s the truth: Alberta’s bats are working night shift every single day to keep our forests and crops healthy.
If they disappeared, we’d feel it fast - more pests, more damage, more pesticides.
Small animals. Big impact.

Preventing and treating white-nose syndrome | U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service In the depths of winter, bats across North America are waking from hibernation dangerously early, plagued with a disease that’s killing millions of their peers. White-nose syndrome, caused by the fung...

🦇There is a good description of the probiotic project and some of the other approaches being tested to help combat white-nose syndrome in bats here:
www.fws.gov/story/preven...

Text reads White-nose syndrome, save the bats, learn about our probiotics project albertabats.ca WCS Canada logo Alberta Community Bat Program - image of a bat with white-nose syndrome being held in a blue gloved hand by Steve Taylor USFWS

🦇White-nose syndrome moves fast &hits hard.
We don’t have the luxury of ignoring it.
Protecting bat habitat, supporting our probiotic project with community involvement, and supporting bat conservation actually matters.
If you care about ecosystems, bats aren’t optional players - they’re core staff.

YouTube video by Weaselhead Preservation Society From Ecology to Emerging Threats: Understanding How to Protect Alberta’s #Bats

If you missed our AGM you can watch the Bat presentation given by @albertabats.bsky.social here:
#yyc #alberta #bats
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvKR...