03/11/2025
Did you know that Fort Riley is home to at least 7 species of bats? The 7 documented species are the Big Brown Bat, Eastern Red Bat, Hoary Bat, Brazilian free-tailed Bat, Silver Hair Bat, Evening Bat, and Tri-colored Bat. To fulfill the installations Endangered Species Act and INRMP requirements Environmental Division Biologists have used several methods over the years to conduct bat surveys. Acoustic surveys, hibernacula surveys and mist net surveys have all been used over the years, but acoustic surveys are the most popular method currently utilized.
Acoustic surveys are conducted using USFWS approved protocols throughout the summer months, biologist strategically place acoustic monitoring devices (bat detectors) that record bat calls. The high frequency call data is run through a program that sorts the calls and deciphers the likelihood of each call being a certain species. Questionable calls are compared to known calls to confirm or deny the identification.
Hibernacula surveys are conducted during the winter months using stringent USFWS protocols. Biologists enter hibernacula to count the number of each species present, at Fort Riley one species of interest is the Tri-colored Bat. Tri-colored Bat population densities have drastically declined due to white-nose syndrome. White-nose syndrome is a fungal disease that affects hibernating bats. As the fungus grows, it results in metabolic changes that make bats become more active than usual and burn up fat reserves they need to survive the winter. Bats with white-nose syndrome may do strange things like fly outside in the daytime of winter. Due to the risk of spreading the fungus, biologist wear Tyvek suites, gloves and masks that get disposed of after each hibernacula entry.
Bats play vital roles in our ecosystem, they help pollinate plants and eat, literally, tons of insects, including many pesky ones like mosquitoes, moths and beetles.
