Credits

Created by Erin Ziegler, Explore Natural Communities Intern Summer 2015, NatureServe.

Featuring Micaela Jemison, Bat Conservation International.

Sounds: dun-dun-dun, by Delsym; Scary Ambiance, by Mike Koenig (soundbible.com) // Music: Village Dawn, by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Photo: Northern Long-Eared Bat, by Merlin D. Tuttle, Bat Conservation International. www.batcon.org. All rights reserved. Used by special permission.

References:
"Federally Listed Species FY 2015" (Flyer, Rock Creek Park, National Park Service)

Transcript

Podcast time: 2:27 minutes

Voice 1:

A flash in the night! Flapping wings overhead! You whip your head around—not a monster, but one of Rock Creek Park's nighttime residents.

While you are walking around Rock Creek Park you might see squirrels, birds, or maybe even a deer or two. But there are some residents of the park that you might miss, ones that only come out after the park closes at sundown. In the night, the nocturnal, or nighttime, animals make their move to begin hunting prey and other activities.

Micaela Jemison, Bat Ecologist and Communications Manager for Bat Conservation International, knows a lot about why bats are an important part of the ecosystem.

Micaela Jemison:

Many people don't think about bats in urban areas. Or you think, you know, out in the forest and out in the wild; but we actually do have lots of different species in our urban areas. And, one of the things that we often forget is that green spaces in cities are very important.

Rock Creek Parkway for example has a fair amount of light, but [the park] also has darker areas and more vegetated areas, which are more suitable for bats.

These particular bats do a lot of beneficial things for us in terms of eating a lot of bugs, and all sorts of beetles and things.

Voice 1:

There are six different species of bat in Rock Creek Park. One of them, the northern long-eared bat, was the park's most common bat species in a 2003 and 2004 inventory. Sadly, the northern long-eared bat has started to decline in numbers and is now federally listed as a Threatened Species.

Micaela Jemison:

So White Nose Syndrome is a fungus that has been, we think, introduced by humans—we're not 100% sure. But, this fungus actually comes from Europe.

One of the species that has been really affected by this is the northern long-eared bat, and in most places it's been devastated; up to 99% of a population in a cave, unfortunately, have succumbed to the disease.

Voice 1:

Even with Rock Creek Park's bats in trouble, there are ways we can help like protecting forests, which are the summer maternity habitat for the bats.

Micaela Jemison:

If you come across a bat for any reason, don't disturb it. 

Another thing that you can also do is build a bat house, have a bat house out in your back yard. We do have a lack of roosting places for a lot of these bats because unfortunately we humans like to cut down forests.

Voice 1:

Just because the sun has gone down, and the Park has closed, doesn't mean the whole forest has gone to sleep. We can rest assured knowing that the bats have the night shift at Rock Creek Park covered.

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