U of S researcher hopes to conserve two of Saskatchewan’s bat species

There are six species of bats in Saskatchewan, and two of them are endangered due to a disease called White-Nose Syndrome.

As a result, researchers in the province are doing conservation work to protect them and the role they play.

Lauren MacDonald, a research and outreach co-ordinator for the University of Saskatchewan’s biology department, said her work involves conservation of the two bat species, the little brown bat and the Northern Myotis.

Both of these species are endangered because of a fungus that causes White-Nose Syndrome, she explained, adding it’s a deadly disease that is affecting these bats and the hibernating species.

MacDonald said bats play an important role in insect control for crops, especially in Saskatchewan.

“All of the Canadian bats are insect eaters. They’re insectivores, and they eat truly numerable numbers of crop pests,” she said, noting that in the United States it’s estimated that bats save farmers billions of dollars worth of pesticides and crop protection.

But to protect the bats, researchers have to find them first.

MacDonald said the university is asking for the public’s help in identifying roosts where bats live. The bats are then caught and studied to see how healthy they are in that particular environment.

MacDonald said the process starts with a bat detector to determine if the bats are one of the endangered species. The detector is an echo location detector that picks up ultrasound frequency.

“Each bat has a distinct echo location call, kind of like birds where you can determine the species based on what their calls look like,” she explained.

If the bats detected are part of the endangered species group, researchers will catch the bats with nets and give them what MacDonald called a “health checkup.”

MacDonald said bats are quite common, and although they can’t always be seen, sounds of them moving around, chittering or squeaking can be heard if they are roosting in an attic or house.

Another indication that bats might be on a property is through guano, which is bat poop. It looks like little black or brown rice pellets that collect under roosts.

“If you have bats either in an old barn or in your house, you might see a pile of guano from where they’re roosting,” she said.

MacDonald added that if you see a lot of bats just around dusk or right around dawn, it’s likely that they are roosting somewhere on your property.

So far, MacDonald said they’ve received an outpouring of responses from almost 100 people who have come forward and said they have bats on their property.

“It’s been a really, really productive use for us, since we have so many more places that we have an opportunity to go look (at) and see if these are endangered species,” she said.

MacDonald hopes her research not only protects the endangered species in Saskatchewan, but also informs others of the important role bats play in the province.

She said people who think they have bats can contact the team of researchers through bats.sask@gmail.com.

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