Few bat researchers consider setting mist nets over frozen streams when temperatures are far below zero and most bats are expected to be either hibernating or enjoying the southern end of migration routes. But when graduate student Cori Lausen of the University of Calgary in Alberta set her nets in the frigid Canadian prairie, she caught bats that stayed active through most of the winter – a most unexpected discovery ...more

Many of the extraordinary abilities of bats are being designed into a miniature flying robot that the U.S. Army hopes to use for spying on urban combat areas. The spy bat, packed with miniature electronics, would gather data from the sights, sounds and smells it encounters and relay the information back to a soldier in real time, says the University of Michigan News Service. The university received a five-year, $10 million grant to establish a Center for Objective Microelectronics and Biomimetic...more

Time is running out to sign up for a unique outdoor experience this summer – a BCI Bat Conservation and Management Workshop. Attendance at each of the four workshops – in Arizona, California and Pennsylvania – is strictly limited, so don’t put off registering. These intense, six-day sessions in stunning natural landscapes are designed to introduce wildlife professionals and serious amateurs to the latest bat-research and management techniques. The workshops emphasize hands-on training in humanely capturing and identifying bats, as well as classroom lectures on current bat-conservation issues and field trips to...more