Promoting bat research, conservation, and education

Over twenty members of the Mississippi Bat Working Group gathered on March 27, 2024 for an annual meeting held at Mississippi State University. Highlights of the event included acknowleding Past-Chair Becky Rosamond for her lengthy service to the group as she stepped down from thirteen years of leadership of the group. Shelton Whittington of the USFS was also recognized with the Service Award. A variety of presentations provided updates from MDWFP, the Jackson USFWS Ecological Services Office, and several projects conducted by Mississippi State University, ESI Consulting, and Virginia Tech. Attendees also provided feedback on a draft Bats of Mississippi poster. The group would like to thank the Vet School for providing meeting space and technical support and all of the speakers for providing wonderful presentations. We look forward to seeing many of you at our annual mist net event this summer.

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Mississippi Roads with Walt Grayson recently aired an episode titled “Bugs!” on Mississippi Public Broadcasting. Although the episode focuses on insects, they also feature a segment on bats and the Mississippi Bat Working Group. Click here to see the full episode or skip ahead to 10:23 for just the bat segment. Thanks to Chester Martin, Becky Rosamond, and Alison McCartney for working with MPB to get this exposure for the group and Mississippi’s bats.

The Mississippi Bat Working Group will hold our annual meeting on April 6 at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science in Jackson, MS. The meeting is a free event and will feature updates on bat monitoring and research across the state as well as time to network with wonderful people passionate about bat conservation and education. Please check back later for a full agenda.

A tri-colored bat with white-nosed syndrome was found in a Mississippi culvert this year by MDWFP biologist Katelin Cross. This marks the first instance of WNS in Mississippi. See the press release for more information.

Our Annual Mist Net Event will be held on Holly Springs National Forest the nights of July 26-27. Food and lodging will be on your own so if you plan to attend you can go ahead and make arrangements. Local lodging options include Wall Doxey State Park, which offers camping and cabins, or there are hotels in the town of Holly Springs. A current rabies vaccination is required to handle bats, but anyone can participate and help set up and check nets. Registration will be $20 and includes an event t-shirt. Click here to register.

Save the date (March 9-10, 2022) to join the MBWG at the 27th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Bat Diversity Network (SBDN) and the 32nd Annual Colloquium on the Mammals in the Southeastern US. For more information and to register visit sbdn.org.

Due to the risks posed by COVID-19 to our native bat species, the MBWG will be holding a virtual mist net event in October in place of the group’s traditional annual event. Join us October 24-31 on msbats.org or find us on Facebook to see original content highlighting Mississippi’s bats and the tools used to study and conserve them.

MBWG members staffed a booth about bats at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science’s Pollinator Day event on March 11, 2020.

For those of us involved in bat conservation in Mississippi, the unexpected loss of Kathy Shelton has been difficult. She was a voice and a champion for Mississippi’s wildlife, especially those less understood or appreciated species including bats. The Mississippi Bat Working Group will continue to work towards a greater appreciation and understanding of Mississippi’s diversity of bats in her memory.

The membership of the MBWG would also like to memorialize Kathy Shelton with a bench at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science. The bench is to be placed next to a similar bench which she donated in memory of her husband, Les Shelton. Members of the group are currently designing a wildlife element to be carved into the bench to commemorate her passion for wildlife conservation.

If you would like to contribute to this memorial the MBWG has a few ways you may donate towards the cost of purchasing the bench.

1. You may send a check made out to MBWG to P.O. Box 1070, Grenada, MS 38901. Please indicate in the memo that it is for Kathy.
2. You may make a donation via our Facebook page. 3
3. You may make a donation on this page via Paypal.

To make a Paypal donation:

1. Click on the yellow Donate button.
2. If you have an account you can enter your login information. If you don’t you have the option to create an account. (You must have an account to donate via Paypal.)
3. Along the top of the screen, click on “Send & Request”.
4. Enter msbats@hotmail.com in the text box and click the blue next button.
5. Enter the amount you would like to donate and please add a note so we know it is to go towards Kathy’s bench. Click the blue next button.
6. You will be prompted to enter your payment information and then you can click “Send Payment Now”. (If you enter a new card, please make sure your note indicating the purpose of the donation didn’t get erased.)
7. You will get a confirmation of your donation sent to the email linked to your Paypal account.

Thank you for helping preserve Kathy’s memory.

 

The Clarion Ledger recently featured the work of the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in an article about Pitts Cave.  The agencies partnered with other volunteers this past summer to install two steel gates to prevent human access inside the cave.  Human activity within the cave can have negative – even if unintended – impacts on the hundreds of bats using the site as a maternity colony and wintering hibernacula.   Tricolored bats (Perimyotis subflavus) and Southeastern Myotis (Myotis austroriparius) are the two most common species documented inside the cave.