With some bat species, especially in Eastern and Midwestern states, success in mine gating and cave restoration is measured by thousands, even hundreds of thousands of bats that gradually move into a roost. But the yardstick is different in the semiarid expanses of the American West. Consider the Townsend’s big-eared bat, which forms small colonies, typically fewer than 150 bats, that roost in caves...more

MEXICO CITY – “Every night, as humans sleep, the flying mammals work feverishly. They pollinate plants such as the agave. … Guano is a valuable fertilizer. And bats eat up to … their [full] body weight in insects every night, making them one of the simplest, safest, most cost-effective forms of pest control available.”...more

Wind-energy facilities are killing alarming numbers of bats across North America and Europe. Scientists have firmly documented those fatalities. Preventing those bat kills is a more difficult challenge.

The Bats and Wind Energy Cooperative (BWEC), led by BCI, is testing hypotheses and exploring promising new directions, including a major effort to identify wind-energy sites that are least risky for wildlife. ...more