On a warm night in late July, a dozen people gather over barbecued burgers and hotdogs in Shawanaga First Nation, about 30 kilometres northwest of Parry Sound, Ont. They’re not just here to snack and socialize, though. Clad in headlamps and settled into folding chairs, when the clock strikes 10 p.m., their nets will open.
The small crowd gathers near an abandoned church, where the community knows 200 to 300 bats come to roost. They’re here to help Shawanaga’s species-at-risk team net and tag bats, mostly the little brown myotis species, as they emerge at dusk to hunt for insects. Nearby is a specially designed “bat condo” built by Shawanaga member Dave Pawis in 2022, which offers an alternative roost for at least 1,000 bats. The air is filled with enthusiastic anticipation, along with thousands of mosquitoes.
Derek Morningstar, an ecologist and founder of bat research company Myotistar, sets a harp trap on the Shawanaga “bat condo.”
Soon, bats are landing in the carefully set traps and the biologists — some from Shawanaga’s species-at-risk-team and another handful from neighbouring First Nations — handle them one by one. They record their gender, weight and age before tagging and releasing them. More Shawanaga residents come by after the local baseball game to take a peek, and even tag some bats’ wings themselves.
“They’re just so tiny … I’m glad they’re very gentle with them,” Patty Walsh, a community Elder who lives just down the street from the roost, says. While some might be freaked out by the idea of a bat condo in their neighborhood, Walsh tells The Narwhal she doesn’t mind: “I like the fact that the condo is right there because I see them more.”
Derek Morningstar, an ecologist and bat researcher, sets up a net with the help of a technician. During the community bat nights, the First Nation’s species-at-risk team invites Shawanaga members to join them in bat research activities.
Bats in Ontario are critical — and at risk
Despite their important role in the ecosystem as predators of nocturnal insects (like the mosquitoes plaguing biologists and community members this very night), there is a lot we don’t know about Ontario’s bats, including many details of their hibernation and movement. And time is not on our side: seven of Ontario’s eight bat species, all found within the Georgian Bay area on Lake Huron, are currently listed as endangered provincially or federally thanks to widespread fungal disease and habitat loss. This includes the little brown myotis.
A little brown myotis, also known as a little brown bat, is banded and gently examined by the Shawanaga research team before being released. The tiny but critical member of the Georgian Bay ecosystem is endangered.
To better understand and help the bat populations survive, Shawanaga’s team of biologists, technicians and land guardians have been conducting extensive surveys and monitoring projects. Their strategy uses an Indigenous-led approach combining Traditional Ecological Knowledge and western science. An important part of this strategy involves community outreach to get citizens involved in studying and caring for the critters.
“Bats in general need a lot of help,” Steven Kell, head biologist for Shawanaga First Nation, tells The Narwhal. In 2019, he began working with the nation and helped found its species-at-risk program — a massive endeavour for a reserve of only about 180 residents. His team has been hosting community bat nights for five years.
The processing tent at the Shawanaga community bat night in July. After a baseball game wrapped up, some Shawanaga members dropped by to help with the research.
Over the last two decades, bats across North America have experienced mass die-offs because of white-nose syndrome caused by a fungus that grows in humid and cold environments like caves. Human activity in caves is believed to contribute to the spread. Infected bats wake frequently during hibernation, which depletes their fat stores and causes them to emerge from hibernation too early. Sadly, these bats usually freeze or starve in the frigid Ontario winter. At some hibernation sites, white-nose syndrome has wiped out more than 90 per cent of local populations.
“There’s a lot of knowledge gaps that we don’t know about, but we also just want people to care about bats,” Kell says. “Since we’re doing all this bat work, like putting up the bat condo, people are more easy-going about bats … they’re seen in a much more positive light.”
He’s particularly excited that the abandoned church at the centre of the community bat night appears to be a maternity colony of endangered little brown myotis. That means several generations live together.
“They’re so cool,” Kell says. “The big maternity roost is like, hundreds of mostly females and generations of females. And they’re super social, they can find their way back to their pups within those big social groups, they know who’s related to them.”
This abandoned church on Shawanaga First Nation is is home to hundreds of bats. The nation’s head biologist Steven Kell (who also took photos for this story) believes it is a maternity colony, where several generations of bats live together.
Bat research draws several First Nations together, but future of the program is uncertain
Since the project began, they’ve captured more than 1,000 bats around Georgian Bay, including all eight species found in Ontario. They have also found over 85 roosts, including one of the first-known hoary bat roosts in the area, and identified 10 new hibernation spots and swarming sites, where bats congregate in the fall to mate and teach their young to find a good place to hibernate. All partner First Nations have also hosted a public bat night to share knowledge with community members.
Collecting data on the local bat population is critical to help understand these creatures and help them survive, but community bat nights also offer an opportunity to engage Shawanaga residents in learning about these tiny neighbours.
But there’s still so much to learn about their hibernation, mating and the long-term impacts of the catastrophic white-nose syndrome. While provincial and federal funding has been available for the last few years to encourage such research, it’s been pulled back drastically in the last year. The scientists watching funding closely say they believe the sudden struggle is due to a combination of election year priorities pointing elsewhere federally, and agencies in Ontario waiting to see what will happen in the wake of the province’s pro-development legislation, Bill 5 — the Protecting Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act. All of this leaves the future of the bat program uncertain.
“We’ve created this really core group, but … we’re trying to figure out how to move to the next step and make sure that it continues without running out of funding,” Kell says, explaining that he’s been adding projects including snake telemetry, sturgeon monitoring and turtle incubation to continue attracting funders so his team can continue their species-at-risk conservation. “To be able to get more funding, we have to add more projects.”
Bats are caught and bagged before being measured, banded and released. On community bat nights, Shawanaga members join in on the activities of the species-at-risk team.
Still, the effort to protect Georgian Bay’s bats is an all-season endeavour. While Kell leads community bat nights in the summer, in the winter he can be found crawling through claustrophobically tight tunnels — some of the only safe remaining spots for bats to hibernate as part of the nation’s Tunnels Project. Here, bat populations have found refuge in the disused railroad tunnels blasted through the bedrock over 100 years ago.
“We got some funding to basically explore all these tunnels underneath the railway,” Kell says. “We’ve confirmed the first six hibernation sites, [the] first known ones for this whole region.”
One of the scientists who helped Kell identify these tunnels is ecologist Derek Morningstar, who founded an independent bat research company called Myotistar. With more than 20 years of experience studying Ontario bats, Morningstar has both the tools and the knowledge to help.
For bat night, Morningstar has come prepared to catch dozens of bats in his makeshift office, complete with folding chairs, a laptop, a scale, pliers and other tools under a pop-up canopy. He’ll be there well past 2 a.m. He’s also laid out dozens of bat-themed books, from field guides to children’s books like Bats at the Ballgame to pique the interest of onlookers.
Derek Morningstar says First Nations should be supported to lead their own conservation efforts, and use the data in ways that are meaningful for their communities.
“It’s hard to catch them, it’s hard to see them, it’s hard to know where they are,” Morningstar says, adding that it’s important to take the time to learn. “Just like birds and other species, it’s a holistic approach. Bats are also important, and they’re really hard to study.”
That’s what Morningstar is doing at Shawanaga’s bat night, and at similar events across Georgian Bay: empowering the conservation teams at First Nations to do this important work.
A little brown bat is banded before being gently released. The First Nation, which has around 180 residents on reserve, has hosted community bat nights for the last five years.
“A big part of what we do is training the First Nation staff on how to study bats themselves … and then they use that data [in a way that’s] meaningful for them, and it’s different for each community,” Morningstar says. “I encourage them to try and use that data for their own policy development, not listening to what somebody else wants.”
“I wanted to support them and let them know that [they] do a great job,” Walsh, the community Elder, says as she makes her way home. “I always come out when I can to help support them.”
