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Bat-Signal Detective

PROGRAMS Bats are unappreciated by many people—but

not Debbie Johnson. “I find bats fascinating!” said
Johnson, Brookfield Zoo Registrar. “They feed on
insects, including some we call pests, such as mosquitoes and flies.
They also eat insects that cause crop damage.” Furthermore, bats
fertilize soil, pollinate plants, and disperse seeds.
That’s why Johnson and others are sounding the alarm about a
disease that has killed 7 million bats. White-nose syndrome, a fungal
disease, spreads through colonies of hibernating bats. Previously
found only in Europe and Asia, white-nose syndrome was detected in
North America in 2006 and has been spreading across the continent
ever since.
When Johnson heard about the Bat Acoustic Monitoring Program,
she volunteered to help. The program—a collaboration of Brookfield
Zoo, Lincoln Park Zoo, and the forest preserve districts of Cook, Will,
Kane, and DuPage counties—monitors the size and health of our
urban bat population. A decrease in the bat population may indicate
the arrival of white-nose syndrome. Volunteers were outfitted with
a backpack and a microphone attached to a 5-foot pole. From April
through September of 2019, they walked through their assigned area
and recorded the echolocation sounds bats make. Bats emit sound
waves that bounce off of objects and create echoes that enable them
to fly in the dark and detect insects. These sounds are inaudible to the
human ear.
Each week, Johnson strolled three miles around the outskirts of
zoo property shortly after sundown. The wildlife acoustics application
Echo Meter Touch used the recorded echolocation sounds she
collected to determine the species of bats that made the sounds.
Echo Meter Touch also has a built-in GPS to pinpoint where the
sounds originated.
Johnson detected six different species of permanent-resident and
migrating bats on or near zoo grounds. Small populations of silver-
haired, big brown, little brown, hoary, eastern red, and evening bats
roost in trees throughout the zoo. “I was surprised by the lack of little
brown bats I detected,” Johnson said, “as they are supposed to be a
common Illinois species.”
The baseline information collected by Johnson and other
volunteers will help researchers and conservationists recognize
local outbreaks of white-nose syndrome, create an action plan,
and minimize the loss of our urban bats. Together with our partners,
we hope listening for bat signals will help protect our urban wildlife
and the health of our community.

Top: Debbie Johnson wore “A lot of people have never seen a bat in the wild—
bat-acoustic-monitoring they don’t realize bats are the second-largest
equipment.
Center: Silver-haired bats group of mammals in the world after rodents.”
Bottom: Big brown bat
– Debbie Johnson, Registrar

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