Our Resources

Power line corridors are ubiquitous worldwide and are commonly used by bats as habitat. Targeted management of these corridor habitats has the potential to aid bat populations, We review known and potential impacts of management of existing power line corridors on bats, recommend management practices to enhance bat habitat along corridors, and highlight research gaps.​

We tested the accuracy of BCID, SonoBat, and Kaleidoscope Pro automated bat echolocation classifier programs using reference recordings for 9 northeastern US species. We found that SonoBat and Kaleidoscope Pro performed best, but were prone to false negatives, particularly for endangered Myotis species. This is the first independent assessment of classifier software for the US and demonstrates the importance of manually vetting bat echolocation calls.

Hoary bats have been acoustically recorded over the ocean, but never seen. This note describes the first hoary bat photographed 30 miles off the California coast in an area slated for offshore wind energy development. Hoary bats are the main species killed by wind turbines, and this sighting indicates they can come into contact with offshore turbines as well.​​​​

We describe songs produced by silver-haired bats, a behavior that was previously unknown to science! Vesper found hundreds of repeated, melodic phrases in recordings from NABat surveys in CO, ID, UT, and CA. Combined with observations from other researchers, we determined these songs were being produced by silver-haired bats and documented the timing and spatial occurrence of songs in western U.S. and Canada.​​​​​

Curtailment, or shutting down turbines, reduces bat fatalities at wind energy facilities, but also reduces energy production. Wind developers would prefer to maximize energy production. We demonstrate an approach wind developers can use to evaluate the impacts of different curtailment strategies on energy production so that they might select the best strategy to balance energy production and bat mortality at their particular facility.

Gloger's rule is an ecogeographical rule that says populations in humid environments will have darker pigmentation than populations in arid environments. We tested this rule by comparing the fur color of western long-eared bats living in the mountains and badlands of Alberta: very different environments but with similar humidity. We found that fur color was darker for mountain bats and lighter for badlands bats, indicating that this species (and perhaps other temperate zone bats) do not adhere to Gloger's rule. Instead, darker fur in the mountains and lighter fur in the badlands could help them blend in with their backgrounds and be less conspicuous to flying predators, such as owls.

Offshore wind energy in the U.S. is a growing industry, and there is concern that offshore turbines may impact bats that migrate over the ocean. We reviewed the literature to synthesize historic and contemporary accounts of bats in the marine environment to better understand which North American species have the highest exposure risk from offshore wind development, and when and where we might expect the highest fatalities to occur at sea.

Bat activity surveys to predict risk at wind farms have long been the industry standard. We found no relationship between bat echolocation rates and bat fatality rates at 49 wind farms across the U.S. and Canada, changing the landscape of the consulting world. This research is saving wind energy clients tens of thousands of dollars on surveys that do not work, allowing them to put that money towards more effective risk assessment methods.

The known distributions of eastern red bats and western red bats in western North America have changed greatly over the past 2 decades, resulting in inaccurate range maps and uncertainty regarding the presence or probable absence of these species within states and provinces. We obtained capture and specimen records from the western United States and Canada for 276 eastern red bats and for 863 western red bats. We documented the expansion of the range of eastern red bats in northwestern Canada and clarified the northern and eastern limits of western red bat distribution in the United States.

While various identification models have been studied extensively, there has been little study of methods for selecting bat calls prior to modeling or methods for validating results after modeling. We obtained two call libraries for 11 North American bat species. We used four acoustic filters to automatically select and quantify bat calls from the combined library. We found that filters affect every stage of echolocation identification, and that the composition of call libraries  affected estimates of correct classification rates. We recommend that researchers carefully design and test filters and include adequate descriptions in publications, and caution that it may not be possible to extend inferences about model accuracy beyond the training call library.

In the journal Bat Research News, we describe the unusual occurrence of finding intertwined carcasses of two eastern red bats that had apparently died while mating. Red bats initiate mating on the wing and drop to the ground to consummate the act.  We propose that this pair died due to falling from a great height onto a hard, paved parking lot, and indicate this may be an increasing source of mortality in an increasingly paved world.

The costs and benefits of torpor for bats may vary across their range, resulting in different thermoregulatory behaviors. We compared torpor use and roosting behavior for female western long-eared bats in the mountains and prairies of Alberta. We found that females in the mountains minimized their use of torpor and selected exposed roosts with warm microclimates during pregnancy, and then switched to clustering with other individuals during lactation when conditions were cooler. In the prairies, females roosted alone in cooler, less exposed roost types and spent more time in torpor.  Our results illustrate the importance of considering geographic variation in behavior across the range of a species.

We compared the external morphology of western long-eared bats living in mountain (cool, wet) and prairie (warm, dry) environments in southern Alberta to test whether flight permits genetic exchange between populations thereby limiting divergence in morphological traits.  Ears and wings were significantly larger for bats in the mountains,suggesting that there is limited gene flow between populations despite their geographic proximity, and adaptation to differences in aridity or foraging habitat. However, body size was similar between environments, suggesting that either bats possess an ecologically flexible body type or that differences in extremity size are the result of environmentally induced phenotypic plasticity.

Entering torpor can yield significant energy savings for temperate-zone bats but can be costly for reproductive females by slowing fetal development and reducing milk production. We studied western long-eared bats in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta and found that bats entered torpor frequently, but nonreproductive females spent longer periods in torpor. Reproductive females roosted in crevices that warmed rapidly and reached warm daytime temperatures. Females roosted alone during pregnancy but formed small colonies within roosts during lactation when ambient conditions were cooler. Nonreproductive females roosted alone in crevices in the ground.These roosts had cooler, more stable microclimates, allowing females to enter deeper bouts of torpor and remain torpid longer