Southeastern ‘Bat Blitz’ returns to Alabama
A bat biologist holds a bat during a previous bat blitz. This year's blitz brought experts to Alabama for the first time since 2016. (Billy Pope)
It was dark, buggy and muggy in the deep woods of Alabama’s Bankhead National Forest. But for bat experts from across the Southeast, there was nowhere else they wanted to be.
For three nights, Aug. 2-4, close to 100 bat biologists, wildlife experts and volunteers trooped into the forest to trap, count and gain a better understanding about the health of the local bat population.
The three-day bat blitz brought experts from throughout the Southeast to Bankhead National Forest. (contributed)
It’s called a “bat blitz.” And after a pause last year and in 2020 because of the pandemic, this regional gathering was a grand reunion for people dedicated to helping bats thrive in the Southeast.
This year’s blitz, coordinated through the Southeastern Bat Diversity Network (SBDN), was special on several levels. The event, which typically rotates around the South, was back in Alabama for the first time since 2016 to celebrate 20 years of blitzes conducted in the state by the Alabama Bat Working Group (ABWG). The SBDN, founded in 1995, is a coalition of bat experts from across the region; the ABWG officially organized in 2009, but bat experts in Alabama have been holding local blitzes since well before then.
Also special this year: The Southeast blitz returned to the Bankhead National Forest, where a regional blitz was conducted in 2008. The timing is significant because in 2008, no Alabama bats were known to be infected with white-nose syndrome (WNS), a virulent and devastating fungus with no cure that has spread to bats in more than half of U.S. states, including Alabama, and is the cause of millions of bat deaths. This year’s blitz allowed experts and researchers to collect post-WNS bat data from the same places where they gathered pre-infection data 14 years ago.
WNS is hardly the only threat to bats in Alabama and across the nation and world. Human disturbance to bat habitat, pollution and climate change are also taking a toll. There are 16 bat species found in Alabama; three – the gray bat, the Indiana bat and the northern long-eared bat – are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act.
Why care about bats? For one, they are insatiable insect-eaters that help reduce costly pest damage to forests and agriculture. All bat species found in Alabama are bug-eating “insectivores.” Also, certain bat species are pollinators, playing an important role – along with other pollinators, such as bees – in plant propagation and crop production.
Bat blitzes are conducted after dark in summertime – when bats are active and hit the skies to feast on juicy moths and other bugs. Finely woven nets, called “mists,” are strung across suspected bat flyways so the winged mammals can be caught without harm, examined and then released. Some bats were tagged during the blitz, so their travel patterns can be tracked.
Biologists from Alabama Power were among the local coordinators of this year’s blitz, along with experts from the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Alabama A&M University. They were joined by bat experts, biologists and wildlife experts from across the Southeast.
Jeff Baker, a biologist with Alabama Power, has been attending the annual bat blitzes for the better part of the past decade. “Conserving important wildlife, like bats, is much more effective when you have great partners. With SBDN and the ABWG you have just that, a group of dedicated partners working together,” Baker said.
Allison Cochran, a wildlife biologist with the Forest Service, said bat blitzes are extremely efficient events for surveying large areas in just a few days. “What normally might take two biologists all summer to cover will be done in three days with this bat blitz.
“A large amount of data is collected quickly by a number of experts,” Cochran said. “This is one reason that so many agencies and organizations support the SBDN’s efforts. It’s an extraordinarily valuable partnership.”
She said the information gathered during the blitz will be shared among the experts and analyzed, providing insights that can help support bats and their survival in coming years.
Learn more about this year’s SBDN Bat Blitz here. Learn more about the Alabama Bat Working Group here.
