Waiting for a catch

Lauren Austin will spend her summer patiently waiting in the hills of Virginia for a single bat to get tangled in her netting.

Austin is in her first year of graduate school in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation at Virginia Tech preparing for her research on the northern long-eared bat.

Her research group will be studying land that has been burned in varying time differences—some recently burned and some far in the past. The goal is to study the long and short-term effects of these fires on the species.

The northern long-eared bat is just one step away from being declared endangered, which is why her group was able to receive a grant to complete this study.

A white fungus that grows on bats’ skin while they are hibernating—called White Nose Syndrome—is wiping out their population. The irritation causes them to wake up and when they can’t find food, they end up starving and dying.

White Nose is not only the reason Austin’s research is important; it’s what could ruin it.

The chances of catching a bat are extremely low due to White Nose Syndrome. In three summers, a colleague of hers went from catching 100 to two.

If Austin doesn’t catch a bat this summer, she won’t be able to take all the measurements she needs to determine the effects of land burning on them.

Most people picture bats as pests—dwelling in attics, carrying rabies, and sucking blood. So who cares if these bats become endangered? Why worry?

Bats eat at least half their body weight in insects every night. The amount of insects that bats digest saves the agriculture industry billions of dollars. According to Austin, food prices could eventually go up.

These misunderstood animals are a diverse bunch that exist everywhere. The effects of their extinction would cause a ripple effect.

***

In Sapelo Island, Georgia, Austin piled in the back of a truck with a group of other undergraduates as the darkness set.

They were headed to a puddle in the middle of the road, which was surrounded by a spider-web entanglement of netting.

They waited.

A tiny bat finally found itself caught in the web and her professor untangled it. Austin was surprised to see it had so much personality—it chattered and bit at his fingers. The professor took various measurements from the bat, demonstrating as the students watched.

“It was the first time I’d ever seen a bat,” she said and smiles. “It was amazing.”

Then he let it loose. It scurried to the end of his fingers and flew off into the darkness.