It started as a class project of the now-graduate of Northland Pines SOAR Charter High School student Emma Perry.
“We were doing a seminar on wildlife tracking and monitoring. We had an assignment at the end that was to plan a project to monitor a certain animal species. I ended up with bats,” said Perry.
Through the project, she learned the ins and outs of acoustic monitoring.
“Bats echo locate at an ultrasonic frequency humans can’t hear right? With one of these heterodyne detectors, it has a super sensitive microphone that can pick up those frequencies,” she explained.
Perry’s project started out focused on endangered bats species and the importance of monitoring.
It evolved into getting better data about the bats in the school forest.
The effort became her senior legacy project.
“It’s been a process for the past couple years. It just kind of snowballed into this great big thing that I had no idea was going to happen I just thought, ‘Oh man I have to make a plan for this little project for a seminar. I’m just going to get it over with.’ and here we are,” Perry said with a laugh.
For her latest data, Perry used the monitor from the Vilas County Land and Water Conservation Department that allows users to upload data collected, rather than record it manually.
It’s able to discern which bat species is making the call and it maps the location with GPS.
There are three such monitors in the county, two at Northland Lakeland Discovery Center and one at the county conservation department.
Each can be borrowed to collect data for the Wisconsin Bat Program.
Vilas County Conservation Specialist Quita Sheehan says they currently have 16 citizen scientists that do land and water surveys for the bats.
“We are actually the area that produces the most number of surveys and that really speaks to how important people feel about the health of their lakes and are willing to commit one night a month to out at night, in the dark, braving the bugs and collect data about the health of their lakes, bats being one part of that,” said Sheehan.
It’s important work given the current state of bat populations.
White Nose Syndrome has decimated bat populations in the Northwoods in recent years.
Sheehan says it’s been depressing to see how quickly the populations have declined.
“In 2016 or 15 when you would do a survey on a lake you would just get constant hits of bats, a whole shoreline would be crowded with bats. Then 2017, you might have two or three bats show up. It was very depressing,” said Sheehan.
Sheehan says some population numbers have come back, but it’s not like it used to be and not every species is coming back.
The little brown bat has lost 95% of its population in the state.
“It has an effect on us because they’re really important predators of mosquitoes. And we’re all complaining about the mosquitoes right now,” said Sheehan.
While the surveys can’t prevent white-nose syndrome, the information can help researchers who are working to save the bats.
Perry plans to pass her monitoring project on to a younger student at SOAR before she heads off to college this fall.
She hopes they, or anyone who takes part in the surveys, find as much joy in it as she did.
“I’ve brought some friends with me before. They’ve watched me basically geek out whenever we hear a bat call come through. It’s super cool and each one is unique,” said Perry. “Sometimes you can hear the difference between more intense calls versus not. So you’re thinking, ‘Okay is the bat navigating or is it hunting right now and I freak out whenever I hear it. That’s probably my favorite, being out there and doing the surveys.”
Sheehan says the acoustic monitors are in high demand. You can contact the Vilas County Land and Water Conservation Department at 715-479-3747 or the North Lakeland Discovery Center at 715-543-2085, to learn how to get involved.
