Washington Co., WI – Have you seen bats leaving from a bat box, barn or other building at dusk? Consider counting bats as they wake up and leave their day roost just after sunset during the Great Wisconsin Bat Count May 31 – June 2. It’s easy to count bats as they drop out of their roost site and fly away just after sunset.
If you’d like to participate, pick your own location where you’ve seen bats, count them one at a time as you see them leave the roost exit point and report your findings through the Bat Count Submission Form
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Summer roost emergence counts are one of the ways the Wisconsin DNR’s Bat Program tracks impacts and recovery from the deadly bat disease white-nose syndrome that has caused bats to die in large numbers as they overwinter in caves and mines.
Over the past 10 years, biologists have seen summer bat colonies decline due to losses from white-nose syndrome and then stabilize at low numbers, and in recent years, some sites have slowly increased again. When members of the public count and report their bat roosts, it helps biologists keep tabs on how bats are doing across Wisconsin.
