How many bats are there around Prince George?

The B.C. Community Bat Program is calling for volunteers to get involved in the B.C. Annual Bat Count.

June 1, bat biologists and volunteers will enjoy late nights counting bats at maternity roosts throughout the province. 

“Female bats roost together in summer and raise their young in maternity colonies,” says Tina Watters, Omineca co-ordinator for the BC Community Bat Program. “They generally only have one pup per female in June.” The males do not help with raising the young and usually roost by themselves in large trees, rock cliffs, boulder fields, or barns and buildings. 

The Annual Bat Count involves sitting outside a bat maternity roost at sunset and, for an hour, counting all the bats that come out of that roost. “The maternity roosts that we count are in buildings, bat boxes, or bridges,” says Watters. 

Last year, volunteers conducted 888 bat counts at 274 different maternity roost sites across the province. “The data collected is really important as it helps us know how the bat populations are doing in B.C.,” says Watters. “We usually do 4 bat counts at every roost site – two in June to count just the females and two more starting mid-July when the pups are learning to fly.” 

Begun in 2012, the Annual Bat Count is the only long-term monitoring program focused on bat summer roosts in BC. The counts help biologists monitor bat populations and track impacts on or recovery of species. If populations decline, it could indicate impacts from white-nose syndrome (WNS), a fungal disease that has decimated bat populations in eastern Canada and the U.S. The fungus that causes WNS was detected in 2022 in the Grand Forks region of B.C., but WNS itself has not been detected yet in B.C.

“A large number of the roost site we count, house Little Brown Myotis and Yuma Myotis, both of which are susceptible to white-nose syndrome,” says Watters. 

Bats in B.C. are key predators of many night-flying insects. They are essential parts of B.C.’s ecosystems and provide billions of dollars of economic benefit by helping control agricultural, forest, and urban pests.

Report a bat colony or sign up to help with bat counts at www.bcbats.ca, [email protected], or 1-855-922-2287 ext. 26. In partnership with the B.C. Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, the B.C. Community Bat Program provides information and promotes local stewardship and citizen science.

The program runs thanks to funding from the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation, the Forest Enhancement Society of B.C., and the Habitat Stewardship Program.

Find out more about the B.C. Community Bat Program and options for helping local bat populations at www.bcbats.ca.