Alberta Community Bat Program
In North America, the fungal disease White-nose Syndrome (WNS) has devastated bat populations in the east, and has now been detected near Seattle (March 2016). We need to raise awareness about the importance of bats and bat habitat – bats need our help.
Alberta Environment and Parks is partnering with the new Alberta Community Bat Program to:
- provide comprehensive information about Alberta bats
- help people manage bats in buildings
- collect data to monitor Alberta's bat population
For more information, visit:
WNS has severely impacted bat populations in several parts of North America. Checking the spread of this disease in Alberta's bat populations requires ongoing monitoring and vigilance.
Living with bats
Bats are generally shy and gentle creatures by nature, but they can often be misunderstood by people who encounter them. In fact, they are very useful – did you know that a lactating bat can eat its weight in insects in a night? Better knowledge of bats is an essential tool in promoting their conservation.
- Do you have bats roosting in a building?
- Getting Past the Dark Ages: Bats and People
- What to do if you find a bat
Did you know that bats can make great neighbours? Learn how you can build a bat house and let us know if bats are using your bat house:
Monitoring Alberta's bat populations
Alberta is participating in a North American bat monitoring program. This program was initiated because of the declines in bat populations in eastern North America due to WNS. WNS is slowly moving west, so it is important that we learn as much about our bats as possible. Most of the monitoring is being done with acoustic detectors that record the calls of bats when they are flying at night. Also, we are trying to locate and monitor 2 important kinds of bat roosts: 1. caves where bats hibernate; and 2. maternity roosts (where females have their young every year – often in buildings.
If you know of a hibernation site or maternity colony, please let us know:
For further information on the bat monitoring program, see the US Forest Service website at: