The BC Annual Bat Count kicks off June 1st and the Cumberland Community Forest Society (CCFS), bat biologists and volunteers will be enjoying late nights, counting bats at maternity roosts throughout the Comox Valley region!
“It’s an amazing experience, staying up until the darkness sets in while counting bats,” says Heather Thomson of the CCFS and local coordinator for the BC Community Bat Program and Annual Bat Count. “All your senses come alive at dusk. You hear the birds quieting down, see the light disappearing and the stars starting to shine, your skin feels the coolness of the night. All the while you are focusing on one spot as you count the bats one by one.”
Female bats roost together in summer and raise their young in maternity colonies. Most of the species of bats in BC only have one pup per female. Pups are born in June and learn to fly in about 3 to 6 weeks depending on the species. The males do not help with raising the young and usually roost by themselves in large trees, rock cliffs, boulder fields, or barns and buildings.
“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 to forage for insects,” says Thomson.
Last year, volunteers conducted 1089 counts at 268 roost sites across the province. “The data collected is really important as it helps us know how the bat populations are doing in BC,” says Heather. “We aim to 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 so we can establish the reproductive health of the roost.”
Begun in 2012, the Annual Bat Count is the only long-term monitoring program focussed on bat summer roosts in BC. 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 USA. 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.
Bats in BC are also key predators of many night-flying insects. They are essential parts of BC’s ecosystems and provide billions of dollars of economic benefit by helping control agricultural, forest, and urban insect pests.
In the lead up to this year’s Bat Count, Heather Thomson and CCFS Executive Director Meaghan Cursons have been delivering bat talks to hundreds of students at Cumberland Community School. On Thursday May 29th they’ll be offering up a free public bat talk at Lake Park Campground. Gathering starts at 7 with the formal talk beginning at 7:30. if we’re lucky we’ll see some bats in action using some cool tech! Stay tuned for other bat walks and talks planned for this summer!
Please report a bat colony (roost) by emailing heather@cumberlandforest.com or our local bat biologist Tim Ennis at northisland@bcbats.ca. In partnership with the BC Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, the BC Community Bat Program provides information and promotes local stewardship and citizen science. The program runs thanks to funding from the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation, BC Conservation Foundation, and many regional partners including the Comox Valley Conservation Partnership, Comox Valley Community Foundation, and the Town of Comox Parks Department. You can find out more about the BC Community Bat Program and options for helping local bat populations at www.bcbats.ca.