Bats! – August 6: an evening walk at Moose Hill

Moose Hill was delighted to have Maria Armour, Bat Biologist and Instructor at Bridgewater State University present a bat lecture and walk in early August. Our thanks to her for taking the time to share her passion with us – we loved it!

Maria began the evening with a talk about bat ecology, behavior, and conservation. Participants learned about white nose syndrome and its effect on bat populations. They also learned about the endangered bats of Massachusetts: Little Brown bat, Indiana bat, Northern Long-Eared bat, Tricolored bat, and Eastern Small-footed bat. During the talk, a variety of bat specimens from the Bridgewater State University Natural History Collection were available.

The enthusiasm that Maria shares about bats had everyone ready to take their new-found appreciation of these flying mammals and head out on the trails to see what might be found at Moose Hill. At early dusk, everyone turned on their headlights and enjoyed an easy walk to the Bat Barn.

Throughout the early evening, over fifteen individual bats were observed flying just above our heads; feeding on moths and mosquitoes. Yes, mosquitoes – what a great natural way to bring down the mosquito population! Did you know that a bat will consume half it’s body weight each night in insects, but they also eat plants (fruit and nectar).

We discovered that Maria has learned that Moose Hill’s most abundant bat is the Big Brown bat.

Big Brown bat caught at BSU this summer

Our hope was to observe the Little Brown bat, but we were saddened to not find any that evening. We did document the Eastern Red bat, Hoary bat and the Tricolored bat (so exciting as this is an endangered species in MA)!

Tricolored bat; photo by the National Park Service

And, the group used a spectrogram to record the voiceprints of the bats – helping in the identification process!

image of a recording taken on a spectrogram

Partnering with Bridgewater State University has been great and we look forward to learning more about our bat population and habitat use from the acoustic surveys that are being conducted on the sanctuary.

Be sure to look for more bat programs at Moose Hill in the future, and, check out our program catalog for more opportunities to join us as we explore Moose Hill after-hours.

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