Blog Posts

It’s love day and everyone is included, even (especially), our sweet friends the bats! As a bat researcher and conservation biologist, it is easy for me to fall in love with these funky flying mammals, and it probably is for you too (if you are reading this blog in the […]

The Love Bat

 in Behavior / Blog Posts by (updated 64 days ago)
All bats in Illinois are obligate insectivores, meaning they only eat insects. Bigger bats eat harder insects like beetles, smaller bats eat smaller species like flies, but almost all of them LOVE moths1,2. There’s a wide range of sizes in moths, from the tiny micromoths with millimeters-wide wingspans to the […]

Echolocation Jamming Moths

 in Night-Flying Insect Surveys by (updated 381 days ago)
It’s been a very busy summer here at IBCP! I want to thank our hard working field crews for a successful field season including: Abby Pagels, Ricky Gieser, Caroline Abramowitz, Jocelyn Karsk, Jordyn Chace, and IDNR staff.  This year, we added 10 new grid cells (GRTS) to our acoustic surveys. […]

2022 Field Season Recap

 in Uncategorized by (updated 574 days ago)
Last month, Sarah and I had the opportunity to assist the Illinois Department of Natural Resources with a hibernaculum survey. Hibernacula surveys are performed with the goal of counting how many bats reside in the cave/mine, identifying species, and locating where they are within the cave/mine. We were both very […]

The Great Bat Count

 in Uncategorized by (updated 728 days ago)
This year we had to be creative when it came to making outreach for IBCP fully virtual. One of the busiest times for outreach is during Bat Week and this year it was from October 24-31. We came up with new ways to celebrate still making Bat Week fun and […]

Bat Week At A Distance

 in Uncategorized by (updated 1248 days ago)
Bats do not use the same bat cave all year round! They have different resting places, called roosts, that they utilize throughout the season depending on their needs. Hibernaculum– A hibernaculum is where some species of bats hibernate through the winter. Hibernacula (plural of hibernaculum) are often caves, mines, or […]

Bats and where they call home

 in Uncategorized by (updated 1267 days ago)
Fall is an important time of year for bats as their reproduction cycle begins! As temperatures begin to cool between August and October, bats swarm in the air; circling closely with each other in large groups, often near hibernacula sites. As they swarm, they assess potential partners, mate, and survey […]

Bat Reproduction

 in Uncategorized by (updated 1283 days ago)