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It’s been a very busy summer here at IBCP! I want to thank our hard working field crews for a successful field season including: Abby Pagels, Ricky Gieser, Caroline Abramowitz, Jocelyn Karsk, Jordyn Chace, and IDNR staff.  This year, we added 10 new grid cells (GRTS) to our acoustic surveys. […]

2022 Field Season Recap

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Last month, Sarah and I had the opportunity to assist the Illinois Department of Natural Resources with a hibernaculum survey. Hibernacula surveys are performed with the goal of counting how many bats reside in the cave/mine, identifying species, and locating where they are within the cave/mine. We were both very […]

The Great Bat Count

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This year we had to be creative when it came to making outreach for IBCP fully virtual. One of the busiest times for outreach is during Bat Week and this year it was from October 24-31. We came up with new ways to celebrate still making Bat Week fun and […]

Bat Week At A Distance

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Bats do not use the same bat cave all year round! They have different resting places, called roosts, that they utilize throughout the season depending on their needs. Hibernaculum– A hibernaculum is where some species of bats hibernate through the winter. Hibernacula (plural of hibernaculum) are often caves, mines, or […]

Bats and where they call home

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Fall is an important time of year for bats as their reproduction cycle begins! As temperatures begin to cool between August and October, bats swarm in the air; circling closely with each other in large groups, often near hibernacula sites. As they swarm, they assess potential partners, mate, and survey […]

Bat Reproduction

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This field season has certainly been a strange one! COVID-19 postponed our field work a few months later than when we would normally start. For the safety of our crew, we decided to postpone mist netting until 2021. We were able to successfully complete our 20 acoustic GRTS (NaBat survey […]

Field Season 2020 Recap and Updates

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Last week we sent out letters to landowners with the results of our 2018 acoustic surveys. It is a lot of work to put these together, but we want to make sure that our volunteer landowners know that we appreciate their participation in this program! If you do not receive […]

Ready for the 2019 field season!

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