Rigged with temperature monitors and infrared cameras, these bat houses at Dixie State College in Utah will be an educational tool for both college and middle school students. Photo courtesy of Michael Herder, U.S. Bureau of Land Management

The Power of Education

The story is familiar - only the ending has changed: Hundreds of bats, displaced from their natural roosts, chose a manmade structure, in this case the Dixie State College football stadium, as their new home.

Humans hated the idea. They were afraid of the bats, objected to the smell, and wanted to be rid of what they perceived as a “nuisance” as quickly as possible. Some 2,000 Mexican free-tailed bats, which formed a maternity colony that was spending summers beneath Hansen Stadium, were about to become homeless again.

Fortunately for the bats at the St. George, Utah, college, they had a friend in the area. Michael Herder, a longtime champion of bats who works for the Bureau of Land Management, learned of the situation and went to work. He explained to staff and students, city officials, and local business owners (who worried the bats would move into their buildings) that the free-tails were harmless, invaluable to the regional environment, and consumed huge quantities of pesky, often-harmful insects. Herder convinced the community that by providing alternative roosting space in the form of bat houses, both the bats and the people would come out ahead.

With a grant from Bat Conservation International's North American Bat Conservation Partnership Fund and support from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Dixie College, and Dixie Middle School, Michael was able to install bat houses on the campus and at the middle school.

So completely was St. George's fear of bats transformed into fascination that both sets of bat houses are equipped with temperature monitors and infrared cameras that send their data and images to TV monitors in classrooms. The bat houses are planned as a continuing learning tool, and students are encouraged to develop science projects that explore the role of bats.

As everyone waits for the bat houses to attract their first occupants, the stadium bats, and their enthusiastic defender, have already changed attitudes about bats all over town.

To help BCI's North American Bat Conservation Partnership Fund support projects like this one all over the continent, please contact BCI Executive Director Robb Hankins at (512) 327-9721 or rhankins@batcon.org.

Go to BCI Website