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.
(Back) Ricky Gieser
This year, we added 10 new grid cells (GRTS) to our acoustic surveys. We are excited to see what species we pick up on our recorders in these new locations. We have all our recorders back in the lab and now in the beginning stages of processing the acoustic data.
We set out a total of 121 nets this year and caught 53 bats! On average, we caught most of our bats between 10:00 and 11:00 pm. This year we collected wing tissue samples for population genomics studies, guano samples, and oral swabs for Bat Conservation International’s One Health Project. Our most interesting bycatch were the 12 flying squirrels that accidentally fell into our nets!
We are now preparing for Bat Week 2022 https://batweek.org/. If you are interested in an Illinois Bat Conservation presentation please email us at brogness@illinois.edu.