We count the birds in Greater Victoria -- so why not their nocturnal cousins?
During the twilight hours, B.C. bat biologists and volunteers will be counting bats at maternity roosts starting June 1st.
The Annual Bat Count began 12 years ago, in 2012. It is the only long-term monitoring program focused on bat summer roosts in the province.
"Female bats roost together in summer and raise their young in maternity colonies," says Julianna Laposa-Wilde, Southern Vancouver Island coordinator for the BC Community Bat Program.
"They generally only have one pup per female in June." The males do not help with raising the young and usually roost by themselves in large trees, rock cliffs, boulder fields, or barns and building.
The Annual Bat Count involves sitting outside a bat maternity roost at sunset, and for an hour, counting all the bats that come out of that roost. "The maternity roosts that we count are in buildings, bat boxes, or bridges" says Laposa-Wilde.
Volunteers conducted 888 bat counts at 274 different maternity roost sites province wide in 2023
"The data collected is really important as it helps us know how the bat populations are doing in BC," says Laposa-Wilde. "We usually do 4 bat counts at every roost site - two in June to count just the females and two more starting mid-July when the pups are learning to fly."
Bats in B.C. are the key predators of many night-flying insects
They are essential parts of B.C.'s ecosystems and provide billions of dollars of economic benefit by helping control agricultural, forest, and urban pests.
The counts help biologists monitor bat populations and track impacts to or recovery of species. If populations decline, it could indicate impacts from white-nose syndrome (WNS), a fungal disease that has decimated bat populations in eastern Canada and U.S.A.
The fungus that causes WNS was detected in 2022 in the Grand Forks region of BC, but WNS itself has not been detected yet in BC.
To sign up to help with bat counts or report a bat colony, click HERE or call 1-250-995-2428