Advanced Capture Techniques

North American Venues for 2012: Arizona and Pennsylvania

This workshop offers experienced biologists the chance to explore more advanced monitoring and capture techniques, highlighting both contact and noncontact mthods for conducting bat inventories and survey programs. The course is intended for graduates of previous BCI field courses and is designed for wildlife biologists, researchers, and consultants needing assistance with implementing their own bat monitoring programs.

We will employ physical capture techniques with passive bat-detector monitoring, video-monitoring, active acoustic monitoring, mobile acoustic transect inventory plans with the goal of adequately sampling bat diversity at monitoring sites.

Arizona
Our field location at the American Museum of Natural History's renowned Southwestern Research Station in the Chiricahua Mountains puts us within easy commuting distance of diverse habitats, from lowland deserts to coniferous forests, and an amazing diversity of bat species. Activities emphasize bat identification and habitat assessment. Students can expect to catch and release as many as 18 species in a single evening, then return to the lodge and watch endangered long-nosed bats visit hummingbird feeders outside the front door.

Participants have also enjoyed spotting ring-tailed cats, coatis and trogons. Workshop leader Janet Tyburec and biologists from Arizona Game and Fish and elsewhere share a wealth of knowledge on species identification (including acoustic identification), bat conservation, management, education and outreach, public health and nuisance issues, artificial habitats and much more. Participants will practice radiotracking a bat back to its roost, view an emergence of Mexican free-tailed bats from a local cave and learn bat-capture techniques that can be applied to any habitat in North America.

One Session: May 19-23, 2012

Cost: $1595 (USD)

Payment & Registration

Pennsylvania
The rolling hills and mixed agricultural fields of Central Pennsylvania offer a perfect opportunity to see how bats and humans can coexist without conflict. Many thousands of little brown myotis call this area home, yet few of them are surviving in natural roosts, opting instead for manmade structures such as buildings, barns, attics and old churches where they live and rear their young. Nearby mines and caves provide ideal hibernation sites that are critical for these and five other species of bats.

We'll net, trap and release bats over trout streams and beaver ponds and observe endangered Indiana myotis swarming at a mine entrance. We will watch 20,000 little brown myotis in a spectacular dawn return to their roost at a restored church and examine them up close. We will visit both summer and winter sites, as this is when colonies are beginning to break up and are on the move. The dawn returns at maternity roosts and the evening swarms outside hibernacula are spectacular sights. Coupled with netting activities to intercept migrating tree bats, we expect to catch up to eight different bat species during this workshop.

One Session: August 23-27, 2012

Cost: $1,595 (USD)

Payment & Registration

The Fine Print - IMPORTANT

The cost of the workshop covers course materials, food, lodging and all transportation in the field. Applicants must make their own travel arrangements to and from the workshop site. Participants are encouraged to carpool and BCI will facilitate connecting those wishing to ride-share. Participants attending the Arizona workshop can find convenient air travel into the Tucson International Airport (TUS). For participants attending the Pennsylvania workshop, the closest major airport is Harrisburg International Airport (MDT).

Single-room occupancy accommodations are not available. Housing is dormitory style with 2 - 6 people sharing a room.

Because participants will be handling wild bats during the course of these workshops, rabies pre-exposure vaccinations are required. For information on obtaining this vaccine, contact your local health department, travel clinic, or personal physician. Prices for the vaccine series (3 separate injections) vary from state to state but can be quite costly. Please plan accordingly for this additional expense. See “Pre-exposure rabies vaccination info” below for additional information about the rabies vaccine.

Registration for these workshops is on a first-come, first-served basis. The workshop sessions frequently fill to capacity, so be sure to submit your form as soon as possible. Submission instructions are provided on the registration forms below. Once your registration materials have been received, you will receive an e-mail confirmation (within 5 business days) along with a request to provide a $300 deposit and detailed information on payment options.

For more information contact the Education and Workshops Coordinator at workshops@batcon.org) or 512-327-9721.

Additional information and forms:

Pre-exposure rabies vaccination info
WNS Decontamination Agreement
 Scholarship Information & Application Form
 Sample Agenda

Please note:

ALL refunds regardless of payment method will be charged a 10% administrative surcharge. Cancellations made 45 days prior to the workshop will be granted a refund. Participants canceling after this deadline will only be granted a refund if BCI is able to fill the spot in the workshop. Cancellations must be in writing and sent via e-mail, post or FAX and are effective upon receipt.