Tag: Big Brown Bats

by Leah Wells, Assistant Wildlife Biologist

Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey (CWF) works hard every summer to protect New Jersey’s bats by employing continuous research, education and outreach endeavors. Our Summer Bat Count project and Mobile Acoustic Surveys, both in collaboration with the State’s Endangered and Nongame Species Program (ENSP), are essential components of these efforts, enabling us to gather and document crucial information about bat populations within the state.

Since 2003, the Summer Bat Count project has relied upon the commitment of dedicated volunteers. Equipped with only a fresh set of eyes, these volunteers tally bat populations at known summer roost sites, whether it be a bat house, attic, bridge or church. The project’s primary goal is to gain a deeper insight into the distribution of bats across the state, their preferred roosting conditions and the fluctuations in population over time. While the outcomes of this year’s survey are still pending, emergence surveys during the 2022 maternity season revealed a noteworthy increase in bats for a particular roost in Warren County. This roost has been consistently monitored, with data dating back before the introduction of White-nose Syndrome.

Continue reading “Collaborative Projects Gather Data About Bats in the Garden State”

by Meaghan Lyon

During the past two months, CWF biologists have spent many late nights surveying for bats in the Pinelands! A typical survey night starts just before sundown with setting up expansive nets across corridors in the woods. In the dark, these fine threaded nets are nearly invisible to bats and the occasional flying squirrel or whip-poor-will. As the sun sets, the bats emerge, rushing through the sky to their foraging grounds. Every ten minutes, from sunset till 2am, the nets are checked, and any captured bats are safely extracted to then be identified, weighed, and measured.

               Over the course of ten nights during the 2022 summer mist netting surveys, 79 bats were captured! That’s 30 more bats than were captured in 2021 in the same area of the Pinelands! Unfortunately, none of our target species like Northern long-eared bat or little brown bat were captured. Even though our survey goals were not met, there was still some exciting news throughout the season like recaptured bats from previous survey years. One recaptured bat was banded in 2018 which provides some insight into how site fidelic these bats can be to their foraging and breeding areas!

Continue reading “Summer Survey Yields 79 Bats”

BIG BROWN BATS ARE THE STAR OF THE SHOW FOR OVER 200,000 ONLINE FOLLOWERS

By Stephanie Feigin, Wildlife Ecologist

Earlier this week marked the second year that Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey wildlife ecologist Stephanie Feigin, along with project partner MacKenzie Hall from New Jersey’s Division of Fish and Wildlife and project interns from Rutgers University, banded the BatCam bats. This banding survey was part of a long standing maternity survey project conducted by CWF in partnership with NJDEP. These surveys allow us to gain important information about reproductive success, record weight, sex and age status of the bats, assess bats for signs of white-nose syndrome, and band bats for future observation.

 

Photos by Stephanie Feigin

 

This year, the team decided to stream the banding of big brown bats LIVE on Facebook. Allowing viewers to gain a once in a lifetime opportunity to see wildlife in a way they have never seen before and giving us the ability to directly interact with thousands of followers as we conducted an important wildlife survey. The banding has reached over 200,000 online followers as of Thursday morning.

 

The team caught and banded 36 bats total, 14 adult females (10 were recaputres from last year, 4 were banded as juveniles last year) and 23 juveniles (12 males and 11 female). All of the bats were weighed, measured, and banded according to the same coding as last year (red for juveniles and silver for adults).

 

The main goal of our Bat Project is to protect the bats we have in New Jersey, protect their habitats, learn more about their life cycles, and educate the public on the benefits of bats and how amazing and beneficial they truly are. By streaming live, we were able to shed new light on bats and allow the public to gain a better understanding for these special mammals.

 

Learn More:

• Watch Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s BatCam Live!
• Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s Bat Project
• Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s online field guide: big brown bat
• White-nose Syndrome

 

Watch a Family of Bats LIVE on Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s BatCam

by: Stephanie Feigin, Wildlife Ecologist

Early April 2016, the BatCam bats returned to their roost in the window of the Williams’ home. As of now, it seems that only part of the colony has returned — about 20 big brown bats.

 

Last year CWF’s Stephanie Feigin and ENSP’s MacKenzie Hall banded the BatCam bats. We banded a total of 48 bats, about half of the bats banded were adults (banded with silver bands) and the others were juveniles (banded with red bands). This has allowed us to now see that some of the returning bats were banded last year. We even have some juveniles that have returned to the roost with their moms from last year!

 

Make sure to stay tuned for when the moms give birth to their pups in June and other updates throughout the season!

 

Learn More:

• Watch Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s BatCam Live!
• Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s Bat Project
• Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s online field guide: big brown bat

 

Stephanie Feigin is the Wildlife Ecologist for Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey.

By: Lindsay McNamara, Communications Coordinator

BatCam, the live-action camera that captures a colony of big brown bats living in a family home in Flemington, received plenty of media attention this week. BatCam is hosted on Conserve Wildlife Foundation‘s website, thanks to the Williams family.

The bats’ unusual choice of a summer roost has given this family a unique peek at their lives, from knowing exactly when the bats return from hibernation each spring, to watching them give birth and care for their pups though the summer.

The bats also caught the attention of New Jersey media. Read about the colony of big brown bats:

• ABC 7 Eyewitness News: Bat colony takes up residence in New Jersey window frame
• MyNJ9.com: Family Shares Bedroom With A Colony Of Bats
• GrindTV.com: Bats make home at New Jersey residence
  
• DailyNews724.com: Bat colony takes up residence in New Jersey window frame
• NJ.com/Hunterdon County Democrat: Batcam gives rare look at colony living in N.J. boys’ bedroom window
• NJ.com/Hunterdon County Democrat: Raritan family shares up-close view of bat colony via live webcam

Learn more about Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s work to help protect NJ’s bat population:

• Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s Bat Project
• Watch the BatCam!

Lindsay McNamara is the Communications Coordinator for Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey.