Get Involved

Facts on the Fly: Things You Can Do to Promote Bat Conservation
From Bat Conservation International
http://www.batcon.org/pdfs/education/fof_conserve.pdf
Bat Conservation International has developed an excellent list of things that can be done to help bats.  You don’t need to travel far or have a degree in biology to help bats. You can make a difference by working on local projects. Every community has unique needs. These suggestions may apply to the bats where you live.

Plant a Bat Garden
From Organization for Bat Conservation
CLICK HERE for a pdf file
Bats eat night flying insects.  If you would like to attract bats to your garden, you may want to plant flowers that are late day blooming or night-scented. These plants will attract night pollinators, like moths, which bats like to eat.

White-Nose Syndrome:  What can you do to help? Bat house
From U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
http://www.fws.gov/WhiteNoseSyndrome/help.html
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service provides ideas about how people can avoid the possible spread of White-Nose Syndrome by humans.

BUILD and/or INSTALL a BAT HOUSE

Backyard Habitat for Wildlife
From the US Fish and Wildlife Service
http://www.fws.gov/...BatBoxPlanForIN.pdf
Here are directions for building and installing a bat house.  

Bat House Facts
From the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Division of Fish and Wildlife
http://www.fw.delaware.gov/bats/Documents/Bat%20house%20facts.pdf
Here are some tips for installing a bat house.  

Free Bat House Plans
From the Organization for Bat Conservation
http://www.batconservation.org/bat-houses/build-your-own-bat-house
Check out this link for information on building a bat house, tips on where to place a house, research, and more.

Habitat for Bats
http://www.habitatforbats.org/
Check out this web site for information about bats, chosing a bat house, putting up bat houses and more. 

How to Build a Bat House
From the National Wildlife Federation
http://www.nwf.org/Get-Outside/Outdoor-Activities/Garden-for-Wildlife/Gardening-Tips/Build-a-Bat-House.aspx
This is a step-by-step guide for building a bat house.  Your goal is to make a bat house that mimics the space between bark and a tree trunk. That would be the bats' ideal nursery. That's why the space inside a bat house is very narrow, unlike a bird house which would house a nest. Bats like tight spaces. They also need it nice and warm for the babies.  Also refer to pages 20 to 23 of the American Bats Online Activity Guide http://www.nwf.org/~/media/PDFs/Wildlife/batguide.ashx for information on how to build a bat house.

Install a Bat House
From Bat Conservation International
http://batcon.org/index.php/get-involved/install-a-bat-house/subcategory/intro.html
Homes are often in short supply for bats.  This web site has tips for attracting bats, information on installing bat houses, research, and more.

 
CITIZEN SCIENCE

Alaska Bat Monitoring Project
http://aknhp.uaa.alaska.edu/akbats/index.htm
The Alaska Bat Monitoring Program is a volunteer-based effort designed to assess the current status of bats in Alaska. The goal is to learn where bats are found in the state and to assess their baseline populations. We are also interested in habitat variables associated with their presence. Because our knowledge of bats is very limited in Alaska, we are looking for observations to be reported from any area where bats are observed in our state.

Delaware’s Bat Program
http://www.fw.delaware.gov/bats/Pages/batspotter.aspx
As a bat spotter, you will count bats as they emerge from a roost site and record and report your findings to the Division of Fish and Wildlife's Delaware Bat Program. May bat spotters will count adult bats returning from hibernation and July bat spotters will count adults with pups.

New Hampshire: Count Bats for Conservation
http://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/Wildlife/Nongame/bats/bat_count.html
Be the most creative host in your neighborhood – host a bat count this summer! New Hampshire’s two most common bat species, the little brown bat and the big brown bat, use buildings as their summer roosts. Abandoned houses, barns, church steeples – and even currently-occupied structures – can provide a summer home to female bats and their young. Monitoring these “maternity colonies” can give biologists a good idea of how bat populations in an area are doing from year to year. With the occurrence of White-nose Syndrome in New Hampshire, monitoring these colonies is more important than ever. People in states all across eastern US are counting bats this summer.