April 9 Perspectives Speaker Series to spotight bat research

By Sequim Gazette Staff • April 6, 2024 9:30 am
Photo courtesy of Rebecca McCaffery / Rebecca McCaffery installs a bat acoustic detector on the outer coast of Washington state. Acoustic detectors are specialized microphones that capture the high frequency calls of bat species at night. They can be used to study bat distribution and occupancy patterns.
Photo courtesy of Rebecca McCaffery / Rebecca McCaffery installs a bat acoustic detector on the outer coast of Washington state. Acoustic detectors are specialized microphones that capture the high frequency calls of bat species at night. They can be used to study bat distribution and occupancy patterns.

“Bat Research on the Olympic Peninsula,” a presentation by Rebecca McCaffery, is the final event of this season’s Olympic National Park Perspectives Speaker Series, hosted by the North Olympic Library System (NOLS).

The talk begins at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 9, in a hybrid format on Zoom and in person at the Port Angeles Library, 2210 S. Peabody St.

No registration is needed. Join the livestream using the link at nols.org/ONP, or attend the presentation at the library.

Bats are a key part of our Pacific Northwest ecosystems, researchers say; however, relatively little is known about how they are using forest, mountain and coastal habitats.

Bats are also under threat because of the spread of a fungal pathogen called white-nose syndrome, and are challenging to study because they are small, nocturnal and cryptic.

In this talk, McCaffery — a research biologist with USGS Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center — will discuss efforts to overcome these challenges in the Pacific Northwest, and present results from studies conducted in and around Olympic National Park.

The Perspectives series is made possible through the work of Olympic National Park, the North Olympic Library System, Discover Your Northwest and the Friends of Olympic National Park.

For more information about Olympic National Park, visit nps.gov/olym.

For more information about this and other upcoming library events, visit nols.org, call 360-417-8500 or email to discover@nols.org.

Photo courtesy of Rebecca McCaffery / Learn more about brown bats — pictured here in the hand of a researcher — at “Bat Research on the Olympic Peninsula,” a presentation by Rebecca McCaffery in Port Angeles on April 9.

Photo courtesy of Rebecca McCaffery / Learn more about brown bats — pictured here in the hand of a researcher — at “Bat Research on the Olympic Peninsula,” a presentation by Rebecca McCaffery in Port Angeles on April 9.