Atlantic Canada Bat Week and Webinar
Across Atlantic Canada there is an active community of non-governmental organizations, federal and provincial governments, indigenous organizations, academics, and volunteers working to monitor and research bats. With these ongoing efforts collaboration of bat research is key. In 2019, a bat meeting was hosted by Fundy National Park to bring together bat conservation practitioners in Atlantic Canada and encourage knowledge sharing. To continue this momentum, Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site partnered with the Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute to host an online Atlantic Canada Bat Symposium this year. Atlantic Canada Bat Week commenced on International Bat Appreciation Day (April 17) and culminated on April 24th with a group webinar. Each day, pre-recorded video presentations were released highlighting regional research, monitoring and stewardship efforts. Topics included current bat research in NB (Karen VanderWolf), resource selection of Little Brown Myotis in PEI (Evan Woelk Balzer), bat monitoring in Cape Breton (Jared Tomie), species-specific response to WNS in the Maritimes (Adam Grottoli), population structure of Little Brown Myotis in NL (Julia Sunga), a comparison of acoustic bat detectors (Lori Phinney) and stewardship of surviving maternity colonies post-WNS in southwest NS (Brad Toms). The group webinar discussion focused on current research priorities and increasing collaboration in the future. Over 70 participants were involved in Bat Week and 40 participated in the webinar. For more information please contact Megan Crowley (megan.crowley@canada.ca) and Lori Phinney (lori.phinney@merseytobeatic.ca).
Submitted by Megan Crowley (Parks Canada) and Lori Phinney (Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute).
This featured story was included in our Bat Monthly Chauves-souris Mensuelles newsletter of May 2020. . You can find the full newsletter here.
