{"id":25870,"date":"2021-10-29T10:02:02","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T17:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sempervirens.org\/?p=25870"},"modified":"2024-01-17T18:03:20","modified_gmt":"2024-01-18T02:03:20","slug":"bats-of-the-redwoods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sempervirens.org\/news\/bats-of-the-redwoods\/","title":{"rendered":"Bats of the Redwoods"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\t\tSan Vicente Redwoods\n\t<\/h1>\n

\n\t\tBats of the Redwoods\n\t<\/h3>\n\t

Love them or hate them, bats are an important part of our ecosystem. They help control insect populations and even pollinate some flowers. And like all of us at Sempervirens Fund, they find solace in and spend a lot of time among the redwoods. The bats we’ve documented are migratory: some come in summer months, others in autumn or winter. Although most research projects on the migration patterns of bats in redwoods have been conducted in Humboldt or Del Norte Counties, researcher Susan E. Townsend, PhD has monitored bats on our San Vicente Redwoods<\/a> property.<\/p>\n

Read on to learn what she’s discovered.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDonate Now\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLearn About San Vicente Redwoods\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t

photo by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.<\/p>\n

\n\t\tSpecies Documented in San Vicente Redwoods\n\t<\/h2>\n\t

“I’ve detected six species here,” said Townsend. “It’s likely that another six species also inhabit the area, given the similarity of this terrain to other study locations.” The species Townsend has documented here are the Big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus<\/em>), Hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus<\/em>), California myotis (Myotis californicus<\/em>), Long-eared myotis (Myotis evotis<\/em>), Yuma myotis (Myotis yumanensis<\/em>), and Mexican free-tailed (Tadarida brasiliensis<\/em>).” Sempervirens Fund staff have also seen Townsend’s big-eared bat (Corynorhinus townsendii<\/em>), like in the photo below, elsewhere on the property. While some researchers use nets to catch and release bats or study their droppings, Townsend relies on acoustic recordings. She uses a single Pettersson D500x monitoring device with a microphone secured 20 feet above the ground in a large bay tree.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\"San\n\t\tSan Vicente Redwoods Bat Types\n

\n\t\tWhy Do Bats Love the Redwoods?\n\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\"Townsend's\n\t\tTownsend’s big-eared bat\n\t

We don’t know exactly why bats are drawn to redwoods, but we can speculate. The large basal hollows (openings) – known colloquially as goose pens – that form at the base of old-growth redwoods<\/a> from fire may be easy for bats to navigate. Redwood bark is also soft, with deep crags in which smaller species have been found to shelter. For researchers like Townsend, the best place to find nesting bats is around the perimeter of forests near waterways – bats like to rest close to where they hunt. All the species documented in San Vicente Redwoods<\/a> are insectivores, meaning they eat only insects.<\/p>\n

\n\t\tThe Importance of Bat Research in Redwoods\n\t<\/h2>\n\t

Apart from being a great, and possibly spooky, Halloween topic, Townsend’s research on bats shows us once again why protecting redwoods<\/a> and their environs is such critical and important work. “These species rely on redwood forests for their very survival,” she added. “We need to do more research to know exactly how bats and redwoods are so interconnected.”<\/p>\n

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