Big Brown Bat, photo credit Organization for Bat Conservation
March 14, 2023
7:00 PM
via Zoom
Open to the Public
Register for the Spring Friends Gathering Here
Looking forward to spring, and our first Friends Gathering of 2023! We will be featuring Dr. Joy O’Keefe, an assistant professor and wildlife Extension specialist in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. Joy studies endangered bats in landscapes where bats intersect with human activity, deriving new information about bat biology and ecology, and identifying strategies to facilitate coexistence of bats and humans.
Joy will be talking about bat monitoring and bat status in the state of Illinois. She will also tell us more about the work she is doing with the Midwestern Bat Hub volunteer bat monitoring program. Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge is in one of the North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat) priority cells.
Following Dr. O’Keefe’s presentation will be our own Board Member Maggie Zoellner, who will bring us up to date on the bat monitoring effort she has been leading at Hackmatack’s Turner Tract in Genoa City, WI.
March 15, 2023 Follow-up to the Spring Gathering
Friends and Guests welcomed our guest speakers and enjoyed an information evening about bats in the Midwest, and around the world.
See the recorded meeting on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK_UDOzcZ9I
Informational Links:
• Guest Speaker Biographies
• Midwest Bat Hub: https://midwestbathub.nres.illinois.edu/
• Map of Midwest Bat Hub Monitoring: https://tinyurl.com/MidwestBatHubMap
• Donate to the Wisconsin Bat Program through the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin: https://wiatri.net/inventory/bats/donate.cfm
• Find out about more bat meetings/trainings: https://m.facebook.com/groups/856212528939687/?ref=share&mibextid=S66gvF
Eastern Red Bat-photo by Mark Vukovich