Bats in BC

In late 2021, NALT’s Stewardship Manager took on the role of the Mid-Vancouver Island Coordinator for the BC Community Bat program. This program responds to bat observations and reports, queries from the public about bats in human structures, carries out public education and awareness-building about bat conservation and assists in collection of bat count data.

Bat counts are our primary way to learn more about bat populations in our area. This can easily be done by community stewards or citizen
scientists! All you have to do is spend some time by a known bat roost at sunset when the bats first emerge to forage and count how many bats come out.

In our region there is very little data on our local bat populations. We need the community’s help to learn where bats are roosting in order to carry out bat counts. If you have bats on your property or even if you see them in the evenings please let us know!

In 2022, NALT partnered with wildlife research biologist Scott Wilson to collect acoustic monitoring data in areas that have the potential to be bat habitat. With volunteers, we have been setting out our equipment to record bat calls at a number of protected and unprotected areas in our region. This data will help us better understand the conservation needs of our local bats.