Bats

What’s an important part of our living world that we don’t perceive? Lots. Take bats, for example. Bats are all around us in Edmonton, and yet we don’t we know them as well as we know chickadees and squirrels. It might be because bats are nocturnal; but it’s also because the human ear cannot detect much of their communication. Most bats in Alberta send and recieve sound at a frequency of 20 kHz (kilohertz) — beyond the hearing range of humans. Bats teach us to stay humble about what we know — and don’t know — and to keep learning about how to be good relatives to our fellow living beings.

Take a Listen Little Brown Bat call from Banff National Park. This recording was altered to make it audible for people.

There are nine species of bats in Alberta, and they play an important role in the ecosystem like pollination so it is worth getting to know them through some of the links below:

Alberta Community Bat Program This site teaches us that all bats in Alberta are protected under the Alberta Wildlife Act. It is illegal to harm to kill any bat in the province without a permit. Read the factsheet from the Alberta Government for more information.Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation. The Alberta Community Bat Program also has many resourses on how to protect bats and help support the environment we both rely upon.

Bats are At Risk, help by restoring habitat and not using pesticides.

(We recognize that in rare instances their may be some legitimate very short term use of pesticides)

Learning as much as we can about bats benefits us all. To know them is to truly love them and understand our surroundings just a little bit better. Bats for example can easily eat 600 mosquitos in one hour. So its clear that using pesticides like Bti which destroys the aquatic food chain, including mosquito larva, is never wise. Its sheer hubris to think we can manage and balance nature better that she herself has learned to do over melenia. Nuturing and restoring habitat is the first thing we should think of to be good relatives to our kin. Like our kin we should learn how to better seal our homes (like bees) and protect our own bodies rather than trying approaches that never work in the long run. For example If you have a problem with mice in the home the only sustainable and reasonable solution is to plug holes and cracks. Resorting to rodenticides kills eagles coyotes and other animals that pray on mice. You will also continue to attract the mice and continue to have a long term problem.

Below are just a few links and resources to get you started on better understanding bats in Edmonton.

The Little Brown Bat is being studied by Edmonton and Area Land Trust through the Alberta Community Bat Program.

Albert has bat bioacoustics experts at the U of A. Matina Kalcounis-Rueppell, PhD gives easily digestible webinars and talks on the subject of bat and mouse bioaccoustics. Listen and watch here.

Beyond Pesticides has this to say about some of the risks to bats we have in Alberta and Edmonton

Many farmers rely on bats as alternatives to insecticides to protect their crops from insects, but the invasive fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans, White-Nose Syndrome (WNS) has caused a serious decline in bat populations since 2006. Bats are also important in keeping mosquitoes under control. According to bat experts, 52% of bat species in North America are at risk of severe declines over the next 15 years. While there are numerous causes of fungal diseases, pesticide use can increase vulnerability by depressing the immune system. With the collapse of many bat populations from WNS found in caves that affect bats during hibernation, farmers turn to toxic chemicals to replace the ecosystem services bats usually provide. These chemicals, however, lead to ripples through the ecosystem and endanger human health.  

Visit this page from Beyound Pesticides for suggestions on letters you can write to help protect bats.

Learn about species at risk protections from The Environmental Law Center

Another way to help bats is to join ERVCC and sign up for our newsletter. We will be hosting a bat walk in 2025. Stay tuned.