Lunchtime Expedition: Listening for Bats

Join Dr. Jason Riggio, Assistant Project Scientist at the University of California, Davis, for a fascinating talk on the Absaroka Bat Census. The Absaroka Bat Census, begun in 2022, aims to study bat diversity, seasonality, and distribution in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Data from this research provides important information on bat occupancy and habitat use patterns in the region. Dr. Riggio reveals preliminary results from the three-year project.

Abstract from the talk:

As the sun sets over the Absaroka Mountains, bats take to the sky—but how high up the mountain do they go? For three summers, we carried acoustic detectors from montane forests near Cody, Wyoming, through subalpine woodlands and into alpine tundra above treeline, listening for the ultrasonic echoes of bats in places few people have looked before. What we found surprised us: eight species using habitats up to 11,800 feet in elevation, including several detected higher than previously documented in the region. In this talk, I’ll share how we use sound to study these elusive mammals and what new analyses reveal about how bat occupancy and habitat use shift along the mountain’s elevational gradient. Our results suggest that even the windswept alpine—often thought of as too cold, too harsh, or too barren—may be an important part of the nighttime world of bats in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.