Post by L Roebuck on Aug 27, 2006 18:51:49 GMT -5
Scientists try to shed light on bats
Volunteers set out to log species fluttering about hills of Georgia
By GREG BLUESTEIN
Associated Press
CLAYTON, GA. - To catch a bat, you've got to think like one. With that in mind, a dozen or so bat experts headed down miles of gravel road and dirt paths, over rocky crags and shallow streams, to find a remote wilderness where bats thrive.
At the edge of the Chattooga River, near the South Carolina border, they rigged up barely visible black nets where they figured bats would most likely swoop by.
As night fell, they crowded around a fold-out table, quietly cracking soda cans and jokes as they waited for the soft thud of bats whizzing into taut nets.
Like the handful of other teams fanned out across the area, the squad was part of the latest Bat Blitz, a gathering of scientists and students who devoted three nights this month to capturing, tracking and measuring as many of the night creatures as they could.
Their mission was to try to log all the bat species fluttering around the hills of northeast Georgia while training students and scientists how to trap bats.
Behind the blitz is Susan Loeb, a U.S. Forest Service research ecologist who helped start the project five years ago after she heard of a similar inventory for insects. If they can do it with earthworms, she reckoned, it could be done with bats.
Full Article: www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/4142575.html
Volunteers set out to log species fluttering about hills of Georgia
By GREG BLUESTEIN
Associated Press
CLAYTON, GA. - To catch a bat, you've got to think like one. With that in mind, a dozen or so bat experts headed down miles of gravel road and dirt paths, over rocky crags and shallow streams, to find a remote wilderness where bats thrive.
At the edge of the Chattooga River, near the South Carolina border, they rigged up barely visible black nets where they figured bats would most likely swoop by.
As night fell, they crowded around a fold-out table, quietly cracking soda cans and jokes as they waited for the soft thud of bats whizzing into taut nets.
Like the handful of other teams fanned out across the area, the squad was part of the latest Bat Blitz, a gathering of scientists and students who devoted three nights this month to capturing, tracking and measuring as many of the night creatures as they could.
Their mission was to try to log all the bat species fluttering around the hills of northeast Georgia while training students and scientists how to trap bats.
Behind the blitz is Susan Loeb, a U.S. Forest Service research ecologist who helped start the project five years ago after she heard of a similar inventory for insects. If they can do it with earthworms, she reckoned, it could be done with bats.
Full Article: www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/4142575.html