Unique wildlife viewing events hosted by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources offer the public a chance to see bats up close. One bat survey event occurred in Alta last Friday, and another will be held this Friday at Mammoth Cave in Southern Utah.
Shawn Pladas, wildlife conservation biologist for the central region with the Division of Wildlife, explained the biologists’ setup at Alta.
“We record the site, the location, take date, time, get temperature ... and then all of those environmental variables can kind of impact how and when we see bats on the landscape,” Pladas said.
Biologists use large, fine nets called mist nets to capture bats. The nets are opened around sunset, to catch bats as they begin to emerge on the landscape.
“And then as we get bats coming into the net, we have people who delicately go in to extract and take out the bats," Pladas said. "We bring them back to a processing station, and then that’s when we go through measurements, age, sex, reproductive status — taking all that data."
Shortly after sunset, Josh Fife, the division's wildlife conservation biologist for the southeastern region, begins processing a bat.
“So there he is — just a little guy,” Fife said. “So I have a suspicion that it's a little brown bat."
"One of the things that I'm looking at, combined with all this data, is we'll look at the color of it’s hair on the back," Fife said. "So you guys see how glossy it is. It's that like, nice chocolatey brown, really shiny — that’s kind of looking like a little brown bat.”
Pladas said he loves doing outreach because it helps people understand and appreciate bats.
“As soon as you see a bat up close, and you learn more about them — I've seen people completely change their outlook on bats," Pladas said. "From a place of misconception and fear to a place of respect and excitement towards seeing bats when they’re out and about.”
