North American Bats are in trouble. White Nose Syndrome, a fungal disease affecting bats, has cause die-offs in bat populations across the country and has recently spread to the Western U.S.
In order to better understand and help protect bats from the disease, the Alaska Bat Monitoring Program is currently recruiting citizen scientists to monitor local bat populations. Citizen scientists are asked to help researchers collect data using a bat detector kit which can be checked out from the Mendenhall Valley Public Library or the Douglas office of the Alaska Department of Fish &Game.
Citizen scientists are asked to conduct driving surveys using detectors which are sensitive to the echolocation bats use to navigate and hunt. The detectors record each call and can be used to identify different bat species.
For more information call Tory Rhoads at 465-8155.
