Bat Conservation International

We don't think we have the nectar-feeding bats, although that's another interesting project.

I don't know if you've talked to anyone from Bat Conservation International.

Uh-

They've been on my list for a long time, for sure.

And then the other one makes it into Arizona and New Mexico.

Again, they're that migrating up the mountain ranges following where flowers are.

And so Bat Conservation International is trying to plant agaves.

They're trying to grow out and plant agaves into public and private land so that there's food for the bats when they come.

Bats in the Backyard, presented by Brandy Cristiano, PhD, and Megan White, October twenty-first, two thousand twenty-six, six to seven PM.

In this webinar, the presenters from Bat Conservation International will discuss the ecological importance of bats in North America and focus on habitat for attracting bats to your yard.

They will discuss native plants that attract the bugs bats eat, when and where bat houses might be useful, eliminating hazards, providing food, water, shelter, etcetera, and making bat-friendly habitat improvements in spaces of all sizes.

Register by clicking the link in the digital version of the newsletter.

We believe that sharing some of the most innovative, forward-thinking, and creative scientific research and adaptation solutions will strengthen our collective ability to respond to even the most challenging impacts of climate change in one of the hottest and driest regions of the world.

Today we are speaking with Kristen Lear, director of the Agave Restoration Initiative with Bat Conservation International.

Kristen earned her doctorate in integrative conservation at the University of Georgia, focusing on the conservation of endangered pollinating bats in northeast Mexico.

We'll talk with Kristen about the challenges bats are facing, including changing weather and climate conditions, habitat loss, and other stressors.

Um, and unfortunately about a third of bat species, the 1,500 bat species in the world, about a third of those are listed as some level of, uh, threat, endangered threat, um, threatened or data deficient, which means we just don't know a lot about them.

Well, thanks Kristen for, um, giving us that background on why bats are so important and then also, um, the- these threats that we're seeing to their populations.

I wanted to shift now to your organization specifically, Bat Conservation International.

Can you tell us the kinds of work that your organization does and, you know, kinda what the vision is that you're trying to achieve through your mission?

This is Georgia Oteri.

She's a conservation wildlife biologist, and she works for Bat Conservation International.

She told us that the type of fungus that causes the disease really thrives in cool, humid environments.

Like the bat cave, or, or I'm guessing real-life caves as well.

No, this is just as long.

Um, well, anyway, the group is from University of California, Berkeley, University of Arizona, Tucson, Université de Lyon in France, CNRS Strasbourg, California Department of Fish and Wildlife in Sacramento, California State Polytechnic University in Humboldt, Arcata, California, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Smith College in Northampton, um, Berkeley City College in Berkeley, um, Bat Conservation International in Austin, Texas, Stony Brook University in New York, and Bat Survey Solutions in Tucson.

Wow, that's an interesting name for a company.

Bat Survey Solutions.

Green Grotto Caves is a protected national heritage site managed by the Jamaica National Heritage Trust.

And in 2022, a coalition between Bat Conservation International, the Natural Resources Conservation Authority, the National Environment and Planning Agency of Jamaica, and a local private landowner collaborated on the successful purchase of Stony Hill Cave and its immediate surrounding land.

The land acquisition allows the coalition to block mining and road and real estate development on the land, protecting both the surface vegetative habitat and the roost in the cave beneath.

In 2024, Bat Conservation International began installing predator exclusion fences to protect the roost site at Stony Hill Cave from feral cats.

And the Jamaican government has developed a bat management plan, which includes provision for ongoing roost monitoring and strictly regulates bat guano extraction at the roost sites.

Nevertheless, the Jamaican flower bat has been considered critically endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2015, and their population is in decline.

Our most recent counts estimate that less than 500 Jamaican flower bat remain in the wild.

Information for today's show about the Jamaican flower bat was compiled from occasional papers number 94 from the Museum of Texas Tech University, from Bat Conservation International, from Brian Karsten's master's thesis at Michigan State University, from Bats of Jamaica, from iNaturalist, from the IUCN, from the journal Oryx, volume 20, number one, and volume 58, number five, From the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Volume 50.