Dear Donors,

I wanted to thank you for donating money that funded my internship this past summer. I worked as a bat research intern for the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department. While working on this internship, I received a lot of hands on experience observing and capturing federally and state listed Endangered bat species. Throughout the summer I worked in various locations such as Quechee, Middlebury, Springfield, and Ferrisburgh. Some well known spots I was able to trap for bats in were Quechee Gorge and The Nature Conservancy land.

Our team had two target bat species, the Northern Long-eared Bat and the Indiana Bat. However, we captured several Little Brown Bats which are endangered, an Eastern Small-footed Bat which is listed as threatened, and many Big Brown Bats which are common. It was amazing to work with and learn about each of these species and how White-nose Syndrome has wiped out over 90 percent of the population.

I also had the opportunity to monitor colonies closer to Burlington, where I along with a small team of volunteers counted female Little Brown and Big Brown Bats emerging from man-made buildings and structures to forage. Our data collection was sent to the state for species population inventories.

On my last night counting bats, we found a baby bat on the ground that seemed like it was unable to fly. After calling the biologist, I was able to safely handle the baby bat, and place it on a low branch in a nearby tree. This was a memorable experience for me as the entire summer we were working with adult bats that were stressed out from being caught in our traps. This baby bat was very calm and after taking a minute to recover on the branch it flew off into the night to feed on some insects. Below are some pictures the biologist and I took this summer. Thank you again for your contributions.

Sincerely,
Alec Woolf
Wildlife Biology Major
University of Vermont Class of 2017