Understanding the Complexity of Little Brown Bat Summer Populations

North American bats have been experiencing unprecedented declines because of a novel disease called white-nose syndrome, wind energy conflicts, and likely because of declines in their insect prey. White-nose syndrome is a disease caused by a cold-loving fungus, and when hibernating bats are infected the fungus shows itself as a white fuzz on the muzzle, ears, and face of bats. When the disease hit eastern bat populations the evidence was clear, as hundreds of dead bats were found at the openings of caves that used to be home to thousands and millions of bats. In western North America, understanding when such a disease hits will be more challenging because many winter roosts house much fewer bats. For example, in Colorado, the largest winter colony of bats is approximately 600.

Because of a lack of large winter colonies, Colorado Natural Heritage Program zoologists Rob Schorr and Jeremy Siemers are turning their attention to monitoring summer colonies. Since 2014, Schorr and Siemers have been conducting mark-recapture studies of little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus) maternity colonies in northwestern Colorado. They have inserted passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags in >1,000 bats, and rigged their roosts with PIT-tag reading antennas to record the arrivals and departures over the summer. These data are valuable for estimating survival of bats and understanding fidelity to roosts.

This year Schorr and Siemers recruited two ambitious Colorado State University undergraduate researchers, Kira Paik and Toryn Walton, to understand what other roosts little brown bats use. Paik and Walton spent the summer tracking 22 little brown bats that were fitted with small radio-transmitters. They discovered that the adult female bats, despite traveling over 30 miles on their evening feeding travels, tended to return each night to roosts that are within a couple miles of the main maternity colony. This knowledge is extremely valuable for understanding where additional mark-recapture effort should be directed if biologists want to identify bat population trends.

Little brown bats after being tagged.

Siemers & Schorr marking little brown bats. 

Little brown bats flying around one of the maternity roosts.

Paik & Walton with the field vehicle for tracking telemetered bats.

Paik at the harp trap with a captured bat.

Walton tracking one of the telemetered bats.

Neal Swayze's Crazy Daisy Adventure!

By Neal Swayze 

This past summer I was chosen as a Siegele Intern to work with the Colorado Natural Heritage Program. The internship lasted a total of ten weeks, with eight individual trips to different locations all around Colorado. I asked for the total CNHP experience, and did I get one! Working with a total of ten CNHP mentors, I learned botany, biology, field protocols, flexibility, teamwork, adaptability, and much more. It was a challenge to constantly be traveling and learning new tasks each week, but it was wonderful and exciting. Fieldwork was described to me as exhausting but ultimately rewarding, and I wholeheartedly agree! Nothing can compare to camping, working and living outdoors all summer. I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to contribute to meaningful conservation while having lots of fun.

Over the course of the summer, I traveled to Norwood, Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado Springs, Steamboat Springs, Leadville, Gunnison, Pinyon Canyon Maneuver site, and Saguache County. I contributed to a wide variety of conservation work, including rare plant monitoring/surveys, wetland/ungulate use research, wildlife surveys, small mammal trapping, bat monitoring, sagebrush sampling, a bio-blitz, and finally pitfall trap setup/lizard surveys. It was an eventful summer, and I got a true taste of conservation research while learning the skills necessary to be a member of a conservation field crew. I learned how to be ready and flexible for anything nature could throw my way, while still enjoying the outdoors.

One of my favorite experiences was working on the wetlands at Great Sand Dunes National Park. I worked with other field techs to collect extensive quantitative measurements of wetland quality. We looked for traces of ungulate use including poop, grazing, and tracks. We also collected extensive botany data and water quality measurements. We had to dig small monitoring wells, as well as fix and repair broken ones. I learned how to thoroughly use a GPS, how to drive a 4 wheel drive vehicle, how to set up wetland monitoring plots, how to measure well depth, and how to use, clean, and maintain a water quality probe. I really enjoyed working with the park rangers and field techs, and I learned more than I could have ever expected.

It was a powerful experience to get out in the field, which was something I felt I was missing in my undergraduate education. I learned the value of raw experience, and how nothing else can replace walking around and observing the natural world. Learning from lectures and books is valuable and helpful, but nothing compares to learning out in the field. I highly recommend the CNHP Siegele internship, as I feel it helped catalyze my understanding of ecosystem ecology as well as link together previous knowledge from school with the real world. Plus, if you get the internship you get to see stunning, mild blowing sunsets, and many other beautiful natural vistas! It was a blast of a summer, and it was over before I knew it. I cannot wait to get back into the field, and back to conservation science. I look forwards to more adventures with the CNHP!

Sunset at Lake Catamount, Steamboat Springs.

Physaria pulvinata at Norwood.

Dee and Sarah conducting monitoring plots for Physaria pulvinata. 

Tyson looking out over the river that runs through Great Sand Dunes. 

Bobby, Neal and John after completing lizard pitfall traps in Pinyon Canyon. 

Rifle and Carbondale Bioblitzes

By Riley Reed

What is a bioblitz?
Last week as a CNHP intern I had the opportunity to participate in two bioblitzes in Rifle and Carbondale, Colorado! A bioblitz is when a team of scientists travels to a designated area to best identify all the flora and fauna species. The scientists are given a twenty four hour period to find, identify, and document all the species that they can. Pictures or live samples are taken of each species that is documented. The purpose of the bioblitz is to gather information about the biodiversity of the area. This can help landowners manage their property more efficiently and promotes the best land use practices. It can also bring attention to any threatened and endangered species that are on the property.

First time? Won't be your last!
For many of the interns and volunteers, including myself, it was our first time learning about and helping with a bioblitz. It was a great learning opportunity that allowed us to get hands-on experience in a relaxed and fun manner. Many different fields of natural resources' work were covered, such as zoology, botany, restoration ecology, and human dimensions. All of the CNHP scientists were very helpful and passionate about spreading their knowledge and teaching the interns and volunteers.

Where did we go?
A large group from CNHP consisting of zoologists, botanists, interns, and volunteers left Fort Collins and headed west to the bioblitz location on a ranch in Rifle. The Ranch had a wide range of habitats that provided a high biodiversity rate relative to the size of the property. The data that was collected on the property was achieved through a variety of different methods. Birds and other wildlife were spotted during flash surveys of the property; camera traps were also set up at various locations. Bats were documented using a sonogram that was set up near the pond at night. Insects were captured with insect nets and a UV light trap at night. Fish were documented with the help of Colorado Parks and Wildlife and one of their fish shocking experts. (I would like to note that no fish were hurt during the fish shocking studies.) Trees, forbs, and grasses were identified and keyed out by the botany teams by walking the property. One specialist group of individuals from the botany team focused their entire time searching and identifying mosses and lichens. Once all of the species were identified to the best of our ability, we packed up and headed to our next location 45 minutes from Rifle around Carbondale.

Change it up?
The Ranch in Carbondale offered a good change of scenery and a new challenge to identify all the species on this section of land. Methods that were used in Rifle were repeated with slight modification to suit the new landscape. The zoologist team had wonderful success catching and identifying a wide variety of new butterflies, and the botany team had great achievements monitoring a rare species of plant known as good-neighbor bladderpod.

Overall, this was a life changing event, and I look forward to participating in future bioblitzes.

Kira and Toryn's Bat Blog

What are Kira and Toryn doing?
We’re following bats! Rob and Jeremy placed radio transmitters on the backs of nine female and one male little brown bats. We are using radio telemeters to track the signal emitted by the radio transmitter to the bats’ locations. When we find the bats, we collect data on their roosting site, including what type of structure they’re roosting in (such as a building or a tree), temperature, roost opening height, total structure height, slope, aspect, elevation, UTM, and other descriptors depending upon the structure type.

Little brown bats in a bat box at Rehder Ranch. 

Roosting little brown bat.

What does a normal day look like?

Since we’re studying bats, many people think we collect our data at night. However, the majority of our data is collected during the day, with a few observations at night. During the day, we find the bats and collect data on their roost sites. Finding some of the bats is easy; others . . . not so much. The transmitter signals can bounce in weird ways in a valley, forest, or building wall. Some signals can't be heard until you are right on top of them; other times you can hear the signal from every direction and have a hard time pinpointing its location. So it occasionally boils down to good luck when finding some of these bats.

One method for tracking bats is using a car-mounted antenna for radio telemetry.

Kira and Toryn locating bats with radio telemetry.

What do we do at night? 

The field work we do at night consists of mist netting, bat counts, and going around to roosting sites to check if the bats have left their day roost site. On June 21st, Rob accompanied us to Sarvis Creek to mist net for bats. A mist net was placed near an unused cabin, and night vision cameras and infrared lights were set up and aimed at the suspected exit roost site to get video of bats. We completed our setup around 8:00 p.m. and didn’t start seeing bats around 9:00 p.m. Kira kept seeing bats that Rob and Toryn didn’t see. Kira may have excellent eyesight or is a liar. Rob and Toryn were going crazy trying to spot the bats Kira ‘saw.’ Unfortunately, we didn’t catch any. However, we saw a ton of them swooping down the river catching bugs.

We also got permission from a private landowner to do a bat count on his property on 06/27. We set up night vision cameras and infrared lights at his doorstep at 9:00 p.m. where there was a pile of guano. We visually counted bats until 11:30 p.m. Kira is probably better at spotting bats than Toryn. The bats can be hard to count because they are difficult to see and you don’t know if you’re counting the same bat. This is why a night vision camera is set up because we will later review the video recording to see the amount of error of visually counting bats versus video recording of the bats. It was fun doing a bat count at night. We lounged in chairs watching the sunset and the stars come out, chit chatting and drinking tea. We also heard mountain lions in the distance, which was cool until Kira decided to tell stories of mountain lion attacks. Thanks Kira. 

The other type of night work we do is visiting the day roost sites. Currently the bats seem to return to the same day roost site every day. This has us worried because we aren’t sure if the radio telemeters fell off the bats or if the females have pups. So we visit the day roost sites at night to see if the bats are moving. Sometimes the bats are moving and aren’t at their sites, and sometimes they are still there.

Setting up for mist netting at Sarvis Creek Cabin. 

Nighttime setup for a roost count. 

What do we do in our free time? 

Nap! We nap a lot. Kira’s favorite napping spot is in the hammock. We also swim and fish in the stream (Kira’s better at fishing), explore the downtown, read books, and watch The Hobbit when we are trying to stay awake until 3 a.m. to check on the bats. We plan on inner tubing down the Yampa River and going hiking.

Kira's rainbow trout.

Toryn's first monstrous catch of the day!

2017 Siegele Interns are Here!

Here at CNHP, we’re kicking off the summer with our 2017 Siegele interns! We are so happy to have Riley, Neal, Cora, Lauren, Toryn, and Kira join our team in the name of conservation science. This past week our interns had training, orientation, and were introduced to their mentors and projects they will be working on this season. These projects include a bat study, surveying rare plants, and researching rare animal species.

Because we know our interns love the outdoors, we took them on a “mini field day” to show them a day in the life of an ecologist! They spent time studying the region at Coyote Ridge Natural Area with a focus on occurrences of the rare and endemic Bell's twinpod (Physaria bellii), a neat little plant with a very specific habitat range. We're glad our newest CNHP members got a chance to enjoy the beautiful summer day while searching for the twinpod.

The interns are also becoming fast experts on our citizen science app, iNaturalist, where anyone can upload pictures of cool plants, insects, birds, and other wildlife species they see when out and about. We used the app dozens of times during the field day, and we are excited to see what plants and animals our interns will document during their projects this summer.

We’ll keep you updated on our interns’ work as the season progresses. Whether it’s exploring wetlands, romping around the Great Sand Dunes, or going on bioblitzes with other CNHP crew members, our interns are set to have an exciting and fun summer!

The interns and volunteers meet Bill and Diane Siegele and learn about the projects they'll be working on.

Some interns count Bell's twinpod with an attentive Pam standing nearby.

Talking about all things conservation science!

Interns Riley and Neal with volunteer Lexie take in the beauty of Coyote Ridge. 

Congrats to CNHP Graduates Alyssa and Savanna!

Esteemed CNHP work studies Alyssa Meier and Savanna Smith graduated this spring from CSU, both with honors. (Whoo!)

Alyssa worked with CNHP for nearly all four years of college, completing jobs varying from rare plant data entry to field work that included some nasty allergies (and the occasional ant bite). She was one of the Siegele interns last summer and an invaluable contributor to the nerd word of the day. She received her Bachelor's in Fish Wildlife and Conservation Biology with a minor in Creative Writing. Now she is off to collar elk calves in southern Colorado for the CPW and will return to do field work for CNHP at the Air Force Academy later this summer.

Savanna was with CNHP for the past year where she helped enter data from the endless pile of element occurrence records. For her honors thesis project, she studied the effects of noise and other factors on Colorado bat occupancy with the help of zoologist Jeremy Siemers (a fantastic poster of her findings is on the hallway wall next to the kitchen). She received her Bachelor's in Wildlife Biology with a minor in Ecological Restoration. Soon she will be headed north to work for Idaho's Bureau of Land Management.

These two will be sorely missed (and bribery attempts to get them to return to CNHP are undoubtedly in the foreseeable future). Congratulations to both of you! Have fun (and good luck) "adulting" in the real world!

Savanna on the steps of the CSU Administration Building.

(Typical) Alyssa giving one last huzzah as a CSU Ram.

CNHP Paid Internships for Summer 2017!

CNHP is looking for up to six Colorado State University undergraduate students interested in expanding their knowledge and experience in conservation science. Interns will build skills in plant identification, vegetation sampling, animal monitoring and surveys, monitoring protocols, data collection, and describing conservation values. Interns will be paid $12/hr, with per diem provided for overnight field trips. Program begins June 12, 2017 and ends August 18, 2017. Applications are due by March 1, 2017.

For more information read the full announcement on our website here:
http://www.cnhp.colostate.edu/download/documents/jobs/CNHP%20Internship%202017.pdf

The 2016 Siegele Conservation Science interns. 

Bioblitzes and Butterflies: An Intern's Summer

by Gary Olds, CNHP Siegele Intern

Salida, Rifle, Carbondale, Boulder, Arapahoe County, and even New Mexico are among the places I was able to take my summer adventures, through CNHP’s Siegele internship. I relished the opportunity to participate in three BioBlitzes at Browns Canyon National Monument, Spring Valley Ranch, and Rifle Ranch, with fellow interns and CNHP staff and partners. This is where I got my introduction to biological surveying, including plant and animal collection and identification. Following these events, I participated in the Boulder Butterfly Survey, spending several days completing transects in eighteen different Boulder County Open Spaces. Despite run-ins with barbed wire and stinging nettle, I thoroughly enjoyed catching butterflies and learning to identify several species. I also took part in surveys in Arapahoe County Open Spaces. My largest project this summer was with the GLORIA project, or Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments. After weeks of training and preparation, I spent an eight day trip with five others in the Pecos Wilderness in New Mexico. We established GLORIA sites on four different peaks, the tallest standing at 13,000 feet. I contributed by collecting soil samples and helping to measure out the plots. Amazing weather and breathtaking views made for a fast and memorable workweek. I am very appreciative of the work experience, mentorships, and friendships that CNHP has been able to provide for me this summer.

CNHP staff and partners survey for birds at Rifle Ranch during a bioblitz. This was the third bioblitz the interns participated in.

We completed 18 butterfly survey transects in open spaces in Boulder, Colorado. Each transect was located in a different open space, with ecosystems ranging from shortgrass/mid grass prairie, riparian, and ponderosa pine woodlands. The Flatirons can be seen in the background.

Woodhouse's toads were among the diverse wildlife we observed during biological surveys at West Bijou Open Space in Arapahoe County, Colorado. 

Geothermal activity heat a cave and old mine, providing a comfortable habitat for a population of Townsend's big-eared bats in central Colorado. This population is protected and monitoring through chipping (and chip-reading technology) and thermal camera recording.