Chiroptera Monthly
a newsletter for citizen scientists
February bat news!
Porter County Chapter welcomes the new Bat Adopters from the Discovery Trackers 4-H Club's Soup Social to Save Bats event.
The K-12th graders of the Trackers 4-H Club in Porter County held their 5th annual Soup Social to help PCC save the bats of northwest Indiana. They raised $615 with their homemade soups AND all the attendees learned a lot more about bats! Thank you to everyone who came to help!
How are bats affected by wind turbines?
Dead bats are found beneath wind turbines all over the world. It’s estimated that tens to hundreds of thousands die at wind turbines each year in North America alone.
Unfortunately, it’s not yet clear why this is happening. It’s possible that wind turbines interfere with seasonal migration and mating patterns in some species of bats. More than three quarters of the bat fatalities at wind turbines are from species known as “tree bats,” which tend to migrate long distances and roost in trees. These bats migrate and mate primarily during late summer and early autumn, which is also when the vast majority of bat fatalities at wind turbines occur. It’s also possible that bats mistake slow or stopped turbine blades for trees. Learn more at the USGS North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat) website.
PCC moves forward with Bat project
Meet the Silver-Haired Bat
Silver-haired Bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans) is a Special Concern species in Indiana. It is easily identified by its dark, silver-tipped fur. The silver-haired bat is insectivorous. During the summer months, silver-haired bats are found in forested habitats, particularly coniferous woodlands, adjacent to aquatic habitats like ponds, lakes and streams. In the fall this species migrates to southern states where they continue to forage and breed. Over the winter, when they are not active, the silver-haired bat can also be found in brief bouts of torpor in natural and manmade protected structures like inside trees, rock crevices, and buildings. Females store sperm until spring when they return to summer habitat where usually one pup is born in early June. https://dnr.wi.gov/
Bat Art in NW Indiana
Chesterton High School Freshman, Cally Gemeinhart, shows her winning bat art. It is a felted bat she made for the Bat Art Show during Tracker 4-H Club's Soup Social on Feb. 9, 2020. She was voted first in her age bracket and won $10.
Email pictures of your creative bat pieces to Annette Hansen at executivedirectoriwlapcc@gmail.com It may be featured in the Chiroptera Monthly.