Illinois College Bat Research Program

Welcome to the Illinois College Bat Research Program Website. The primary focus of our work is to study wild bat populations to learn more about their habitat requirements (e.g. for roosting and raising their young, important areas for foraging) and their social behavior which will ultimately provide important information for preservation and enhancement of species that are in decline due to human influences. Bats are a critical component of a healthy ecosystem - a bat can eat up to their body weight in insects in a single night and many other species are important pollinators of plants. With populations of many species declining in North America due to White Nose Syndrome, a fungal disease that affects bats while they are hibernating, identifying and managing summer roosting habitats and foraging habitats are important for the development of conservation plans for these important species.

To this end, we collaborate with multiple organizations both locally (e.g. the Illinois Department of Natural Resources) and abroad (Natural History Museum of Pinar del Rio and Soroa Botanical Gardens in Cuba) for our work. Thus, students working in our group will have opportunities to conduct both field research examining the social behavior of temperate and tropical bat species (locations include sites in Illinois, South Florida, and in Western Cuba) and laboratory research analyzing acoustic recordings, collecting behavioral data captured from video recordings, and collecting genetic data using wing punches from captured bats to make inferences about social structure and population genetics. Please see the links above to learn more about the current projects in our lab.

Students who conduct research in the lab present their work at both regional and national academic conferences (left - 2018 Illinois State Academy of Sciences Conference, right - 2016 North American Society of Bat Research Conference)