Thanks from these researchers...

"Some of bats we're studying are rare, some are common, but all of them are important to New Hampshire's ecosystems. So, these bags might seem insignificant to some people but they mean a lot to us. They're going to reduce the chances of us contributing to the spread of white-nose syndrome, AND it's nice to know that the people of New Hampshire care enough about bats to help in this way! Thank you!"

-- Paul Moosman, Department of Biology
Fitchburg State College, Massachusetts
(Paul works with a team of researchers in NH that study foraging bats and some maternity colonies.)
 

"Many thanks to you, Rebecca Berry, and the Claremont Girl Scout troop for the very nice bat holding bags.  The bags will help prevent the transmission of disease while studying the largest bat population in Maryland, located in an abandoned railroad tunnel on the C&O Canal National Historic Park.  While trapping bats during fall swarming and spring emergence, the bags will keep bats separate while they are waiting to be processed for determination of species, sex, weight, forearm length, age, condition of health, and for some, attachment of a radio transmitter."  

"The study is to serve many functions, including monitoring for the presence of White-nose syndrome, determine roosting microhabitat for the state endangered small-footed bat, and learn more about bat hibernation ecology at the site to evaluate impacts from a proposed rail-trail development project."

--Daniel J. Feller, Western Regional Biologist
Maryland Dept. of Natural Resources
Wildlife and Heritage Service Natural Heritage Program
 

"Please pass along to the 'bat bag makers' that they did a GREAT job with the bags - they are VERY nice - and that I thank them very much for the help with this!"

--Jacques P. Veilleux, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Biology
Franklin Pierce University
 

"On our first night together on a project in New York (Paul Moosman, Jacques Vielleux, and myself), we set up about 12 nets.  One of the nets (Paul's) began catching bats big time - we ended up catching over 100 bats in four hours.  Without the bat bags provided by NHFG volunteers (since each of us had at least 30), we could not have kept the bats separated while we processed them. The bags are holding up well and are a great asset in the field.  Plus, many of them are quite attractive and distinctive."

--D. Scott Reynolds, Ph.D.
Science Division, St. Paul's School
Scott has been studying a little brown bat maternity colony in Peterborough for 15 years.  This long-term dataset will be especially helpful in assessing the impact of White Nose Syndrome, as many of those bats hibernate in VT and NY.

"We just got back from a mist netting project. We caught about 65 bats of five species. We were in one of the few counties in WV that we have no bat data for, so they were all county records. Nothing rare, but we were able to get a good number of tissue and hair samples from four of the species.

"I think everyone on the bat crew enjoyed using the designer bat bags. They have much more character than commercially made bags. They also made it much easier to keep track of which bats was in which bags because they are not all alike. We found that using clothespins to hang bats in trees worked really well."

--Craig Stihler, West Virginia Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife Diversity Program

"I just received the bat holding bags that you sent. They look great! Much nicer than the plain old white bags that we've ordered in the past. I would like you to thank all of your dedicated, hard-working volunteers for me. These bags come at the perfect time as we are planning our fall sampling efforts that will begin in a few short weeks. What would we do without volunteers? I know we rely heavily on our volunteers here in NJ whether it is observing eagle nests, checking bobcat traps or conducting bird surveys. They always come through in a big way for us. Thanks again to you and your volunteers!"

--Mick Valent, Principal Zoologist
New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife - Endangered & Nongame Species Program