NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/708333
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2016 • NEBRASKAland 65 acoustic recorders and, if they can secure funding, an infrared camera, to try and pinpoint the exact cracks the bats are using in the limestone cliffs near Ponca. If they can find the cracks, they will use harp nets to catch bats, and place data loggers in the cracks to measure and record temperature and humidity and see if the conditions are conducive to the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome. They won't be entirely surprised if the species is using cracks as hibernacula, as the species is often found in cracks within the mines in which it hibernates. But it would be new information on this highly-studied species, and if the conditions in the cracks don't support the fungus, it could provide a refuge for the species across the Great Plains and even in the cave-rich east. What We Don't Know Thanks to current and past research, Nebraska is far ahead of many states when it comes to what is known about its bats. But researchers readily admit they know little about these unique night-flying mammals, and new findings continue to show they don't even know how much they don't know. They don't know, for instance, where the resident little brown and western small-footed bats that inhabit the Pine Ridge in the summer hibernate in the winter. Or if red bats seen emerging from the leaf litter on the forest floor at Indian Cave State Park last February were wintering there or just early migrants. And no one has spent much time to see if bats are roosting or hibernating in storm sewers in cities and towns across Nebraska, as they are known to do elsewhere. They don't know if the losses from white-nose syndrome will be long lasting nationally, or if it will even affect bats in Nebraska. Or if wind turbines will have a lasting effect on hoary bat populations, of which researchers really have no firm estimate. They don't know if a reduction in bat numbers will lead to an increase in insect populations and the problems that come with them, or if they will find that while bats do indeed eat a massive amount of insects, including mosquitoes, that they don't really control them. A large-scale test of these questions is underway where bat populations have been decimated in the Northeast, and the answer could come into focus in the coming years. Researchers do know, however, that bats will be slow to recover from these losses due to their low reproductive rates, and that is what scares them. It's all something to think about when you're out for a walk at dusk and look up and see what you now know is a bat darting through the sky, gobbling up insects. If you hadn't been thinking about it already. ■ The author would like to thank Patricia Freeman, Mike Fritz, Keith Geluso, Cliff Lemen, Jeremy White, Michael Whitby and Bob Harms for providing most of the information that was the basis for this article, and their assistance in gathering the photographs that accompany it. Thanks also goes to landowner Rodney Vrtatko, Amy Dirks of the Nebraska National Guard and Rob Anderson at Catron Camp and Retreat Center for allowing access to photo locations, to Jeff Dale of TRLCam.com for providing the equipment used to capture the photos of bats in flight, and to Steve Frederick for assistance in equipment setup. Hundreds watch as Nebraska Wildlife Rehab, Inc. volunteer Scott Hansen releases a big brown bat during Bats Over Omaha at the Joslyn Art Museum in May. About 250 bats that had been taken from buildings where they weren't welcome and then cared for through the winter were released during the educational festival, which draws around 1,000 people each year.