Little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus) on tree Photo by Jordi Segers

Join Nature PEI for their next monthly meeting on Tuesday, November 7^th at 7:30 pm at Beaconsfield Carriage House, in Charlottetown. After a short meeting and fun raffle, the program will begin at 8PM. All are welcome and there is no admission. There are plans to livestream it on the Nature PEI Facebook page.

Read more: November 2023 Nature PEI Meeting — Bats!

The program will feature guest speaker, Darrian Washinger, Atlantic Bat Conservation Project Technician with the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative based at the Atlantic Veterinary College. Darrian will go over some bat basics, discuss bat ecology, and share an update on PEI’s bat populations.

Darrian graduated with a Master of Science from Memorial University. Her thesis focused on bat activity in various habitats and was entitled \”Influence of forest disturbances on summer foraging activity of boreal bats at three spatial scales\”. Darrian has been with the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative, Atlantic Region since 2022. She is the regional coordinator for the North American Bat Monitoring Program, which aims to provide support to people conducting bat monitoring in the region, and she operates the Atlantic Bat Hotline.

Overwintering bat populations in Atlantic Canada have faced up to a 99% reduction since the introduction of white nose syndrome. White nose syndrome is a fungal disease that causes bats to wake during hibernation and leave their shelter in search of food. This results in death from exposure to cold temperatures. White nose syndrome was first detected in PEI in the winter of 2012-13.

The Atlantic Bat Conservation Project is an initiative of the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative. The project is focused on white nose syndrome and bat health surveillance, assisting landowners to manage bats in buildings, gathering public reports through the bat hotline, training governmental and non-governmental organizations to develop the North American Bat Monitoring Program in all four Atlantic provinces, and collaborating with researchers from various academic institutions.

“Bats are fascinating and complex animals, providing essential ecosystem services across the world! Here in PEI, our insectivorous bats each eat thousands of insects in a single night, providing agricultural pest control and helping reduce your local mosquito populations”, says Darrian Washinger, Atlantic Bat Conservation Project Technician.

The meeting starts at 7:30pm at Beaconsfield Carriage House, corner of West and Kent St., in Charlottetown. Admission is free and all are welcome to attend!