Bat Adoption "gift of science"
a gift for young bat citizen scientists
Porter County Chapter of the Izaak Walton League is giving Mother Nature a helping hand with their Bat Adoption Program.
All funds raised support the Izaak Walton League's Porter County Chapter
Bat Monitoring and Habitat program in northwest Indiana.
The program is available at PCC's website, NWIconservation.org. All for a $10.00 donation plus a fee of $4.00 for shipping and processing. Please provide full mailing address and email at PayPal stage.
find all this when you open a bat adoption package
- A palm-sized Plush Bat to care for at home
- TOP 10 Tip Sheet for being a friend to bats in your own yard
- Opportunity for summer citizen science on bats of NWI
- Complimentary subscription to Chiroptera Monthly e-newsletter
- Invitation to exclusive Bat Night Hike with PCC's bat team, Summer 2020
A word from PCC's Executive Director
Those little plush bats are so cute that our target audience of children quickly morphed into 'children of all ages' who were interested in bat ecology. The monthly e-newsletter is full of things adults will appreciate about PCC's work and that of other bat scientists around the world. It also has interactive games and pages for kids to learn about bats too.
That little plushy makes a soft and educational stocking stuffer. We're so thankful to a Thrivent grant that provided seed money to allow this adoption program to start. All the proceeds from the bat adoptions will benefit the chapter's not-for-profit continuation of bat studies and youth conservation education of bats here in NW Indiana. IWLA-PCC had added some man-made bat roosting habitat to their conservation property and were curious about the species coming and going around them.
We had learned that wind turbine farms run in a lateral belt through the midwestern migration flyways of bats and wild birds and we wanted to help. Both are being cut down by the blades which span across their migration routes; coming and going. Bats are not necessarily prolific reproducers. That, along with habitat loss, climate change and diseases threaten the existence of many bat species. It would take $3.7 billion in pesticides on American crops to do the same job as the bats we don't see, but feel the effect of. Bats are so important! We don't want that much pesticide on food or in the water supply. The mosquitoes and the diseases they carry would also take over our backyards without bats. Some can eat 8000 insects in a single night.
So when you make out your wish list, put BATS at the top! Citizen Chiropterologists (bat scientists) can also learn more about preserving bats at www.nabatmonitoring.org. Like and follow Ike's Porter County Chapter on Facebook@PCCIWLA or email me for more details on youth conservation education provided by the chapter; executivedirectoriwlapcc@gmail.com.
Happy Holidays! Annette Hansen