Mississippi Bat Working Group

Mississippi Bat Working Group

Promoting bat research, conservation, and education

June 15, 2026 0 Mist Net Events

2026 SBDN Bat Blitz Registration Now Open!

REGISTER HERE

The Mississippi Bat Working group is excited to be hosting the 2026 Southeastern Bat Diversity Network Bat Blitz. Please join us on August 18-21, 2026, at Paul B. Johnson State Park in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Paul B. Johnson State Park offers a variety of recreational activities including swimming and fishing at Geiger Lake, a 225-acre freshwater lake, disc golf, and nature trails. We will be surveying De Soto National Forest, The Nature Conservancy Preserves, and surrounding Wildlife Management Areas in the heart of Mississippi’s pine belt region. The Bat Blitz is a great opportunity to learn more about bats and surveys techniques, network with other bat biologists and enthusiasts, and contribute valuable data regarding bat species diversity and abundance in the state.

If you have any comments or questions, please contact Katelin Cross at Katelin.Cross@mmns.ms.gov

IMPORTANT DATES
July 22 – T-Shirt Orders Close
August 3 – Registration Closes
August 18-21 – Event Dates

Register for the 4th Annual Bridge Blitz

August 9, 2024 0

August 17 – 23, 2024

WHO: Anyone is welcome to participate. We need Survey Leads who are experienced at identifying bats to species as well as volunteers to assist. No experience, no problem! We will team you up with a Survey Lead.

WHAT: The Bridge Blitz is a state-wide survey of bridges aimed at locating bat roosts and collecting data on roost characteristics and use by various species of bats

WHERE: Bridges located in your chosen area of the state.

WHEN: August 17 – 23 (each route is to be completed in a single day within the survey week)

WHY : To identify important roosts, learn what sites are preferred, and monitor known roosts annually within a consistent timeframe.

  • A Virtual Training/Refresher on bat species identification and bridge survey techniques will be available for those interested.
  • Please contact Alison McCartney (alison_mccartney@fws.org) for additional information or questions.

21st Annual Mist Net Event

August 8, 2024 0

We’d like to thank everyone that traveled to Natchez, MS to participate in the MBWG’s 21st Annual Mist Net Event. Fifty participants from eight states attended the event, representing a diversity of private organizations, consultants and government agencies. The event featured a training focused on identification of Mississippi’s bat species and guidance on listed species and the survey guidelines provided by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. On the second day of the event participants were able to tour St. Catherine’s Creek National Wildlife Refuge, visiting artificial roosts with Rafinesque’s big-eared bats and birding around the refuge’s wetlands. Following the event a field trip to a culvert roost provided an opportunity to see over a dozen northern long-eared bats. Netting occured on the Natchez Trace Parkway and Canemount Wildlife Management Area the first night and the Homochitto National Forest the second night. We hope everyone had safe travels home and can return to join us for next year’s event. Eleven sites were surveyed over the two nights of netting, with a total of 12 bats captured, representing five species (evening bat, eastern red bat, Seminole bat, big brown bat, and tricolored bat).

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Save the Date! 21st Annual Mist Net Event

May 21, 2024 0

Please mark your calendars and join us on July 25-27, 2024 at Natchez State Park in southwest Mississippi for the MS Bat Working Group’s 21st Annual Mist Net Event. Participants will stay in cabins at the park and netting will occur on nearby public lands including the Natchez Trace Parkway and the Homochitto National Forest. A training session is planned for July 25, which will cover bat species identification, survey techniques, and background information about the federally listed species found in the state. A field trip on July 26 will feature artificial roosts housing thousands of southeastern myotis and dozens of Rafinesque’s big-eared bats on St. Catherine’s Creek National Wildlife Refuge.

It will be a wonderful opportunity for new volunteers or people needing to obtain handling experience, while generating valuable data regarding bat distribution and abundance. Student travel grants will be available to make attendance more accessible. We hope you’ll join us! Click HERE to register or, for more information, you may email us at msbats@hotmail.com.

“Let’s Get Batty!” Teacher Workshops

May 20, 2024 0

Two free teacher workshops will be hosted by Mandy Rigsby at the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) in Moss Point, MS on July 18 and 20, 2024. Space is limited so be sure to register as soon as possible by emailing avery.beck@dmr.ms.gov to save your seat.

2024 Annual Meeting at MSU

April 10, 2024 0

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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Bat Workshop with MSU Student Chapter of The Wildlife Society

September 22, 2023 0 Outreach

Thanks to all who participated in our bat workshop at Sam D. Hamilton Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge on September 9, 2023. Thirty-eight students from Mississippi State University’s Student Chapter of The Wildlife Society participated in a workshop hosted by the Mississippi Bat Working Group. Mississippi Museum of Natural Science Mammalogist Katelin Cross presented a lecture and led a game to introduce the group to bat ecology. That night the students divided into groups of 12 and mist netted three sites with biologists from the MS Museum of Natural Science, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and USGS. Each group was successful in netting a few bats with a total of 12 bats captured representing four species, plus a flying squirrel. Species captured included tricolored bat (1), evening bat (6), big brown bat (2), Eastern red bat (3).

Thanks to All of Our 2023 Mist Net Event Participants!.

August 15, 2023 0 Mist Net Events

We had a fun few days mist netting around Bienville National Forest in Central Mississippi. Twenty participants covered 3 sites on 7/26 and four on 7/27, which yielded 73 bats representing 4 species. This is the second highest total captures we’ve had for one of these events and the highest average capture per site (average of 10.4 bats per site, range 4-19). To participate in other upcoming events check out our Upcoming Events page here.

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2023 Annual Meeting

May 22, 2023 0 Annual Meetings

Thanks to all of our presenters and participants in the 2023 Annual Meeting of the Mississippi Bat Working Group. Twenty-eight attendees represented a variety of state and federal government agencies, non-profit organizations, private wildlife consultants, and master naturalists from across the state.

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MBWG on MPB’s Mississippi Roads!

February 24, 2023 0

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.

April 6, 2023 – Save the Date for Our Annual Meeting!

February 22, 2023 0

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.

19th Annual Mist Net Event

August 1, 2022 0 Mist Net Events

Thanks to all who participated and made the MS Bat Working Group’s 19th Annual Mist Net Event a success! We had fourteen bat enthusiasts show up to help net on Holly Springs National Forest on July 27 and 28. The groups netted three sites each night and captured 26 bats representing five species. We had a great time catching up and discussing current bat work and issues throughout the state.

Eastern red batLasiurus borealis17
Evening batNycticeius humeralis4
Tricolored batPerimyotis subflavus3
Southeastern myotisMyotis austroriparius1
Rafinesque’s big-eared batCorynorhinus rafinesquii1
TOTAL26
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Register Now: 2022 Mist Net Event

May 23, 2022 0

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 24 Membership Meeting

January 25, 2022 0 Annual Meetings

The Mississippi Bat Working Group will meet on March 24, 2022 at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science. We’re celebrating our 20th Anniversary with a great lineup of speakers providing research and monitoring updates, planning for our annual mist net event, and recognizing members with awards. Please contact us at msbats@hotmail.com if you would like to be a speaker.

We’ll also be looking back at what the group has accomplished over the past 20 years. We hope to see you there!

The MBWG’s first mist net event in 2004

1st Annual Bridge Blitz

August 26, 2021 0 Culvert Blitz

Rafinesque’s big eared bats roosting under a bridge in Mississippi.

The Mississippi Bat Working Group’s First Annual Bridge Blitz was held from July 12-18, 2021. Seventeen members participated, covering nine survey routes throughout the state. Four of the 71 bridges surveyed were occupied (5.6% occupancy rate). These bridges were in the Claiborne County area and contained 120 southeastern myotis (Myotis austroriparius), 15 big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus), and one Rafinesque’s big-eared bat (Corynorhinus rafinesquii). The bridge with the largest colony of southeastern myotis was surveyed three weeks later and found to have increased to 220 Myotis. Thank you to everyone that participated in this event! For more information, please contact Alison McCartney at alison_mccartney@fws.gov.

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Register Now for 18th Annual Mist Net Event

June 29, 2021 0 Mist Net Events

Registration is open through August 31 for our 18th Annual Mist Net Event, to be held September 14-16 at J.P. Coleman State Park in Tishomingo County, MS. Click here to register. A $10 registration fee can be paid online or on site and covers the cost of an event T-shirt. Due to COVID, participants are responsible for providing their own food and lodging arrangements. For information and to reserve lodging, visit the J.P. Coleman State Park website or Reserve America.

Visitor Center and Motel aerial
Photo: MDWFP

Join MBWG for a Virtual Mist Net Event

September 17, 2020 0

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.

Mississippi Bat Conservation Strategy

September 17, 2020 0 Conservation

In collaboration with our partners, the MBWG has finalized a bat conservation strategy for Mississippi. The strategy was authored by a variety of biologists representing State and federal agencies and comments are welcome from others as this is a living document that can be updated as new information becomes available. Comments may be submitted to msbats@hotmail.com.

The Strategy provides a review of our current knowledge of bats in Mississippi and identifies goals and priority objectives for research, inventory and monitoring, management, and education and outreach. Detailed species profiles for each species found in the state serve as an overview of our current knowledge of life history, range, and conservation status.

Bat records are reported at the county level in this document. If you have a record to contribute, you can submit it to Katelin.Cross@mmns.ms.gov at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science. Examples of records include mist net captures, roost surveys, and incidental observations.

Mississippi Bat Conservation Strategy (August 2020)Download

2020 Annual Meeting of the MBWG

February 10, 2020 0 Annual Meetings

2020 Annual MBWG Meeting

The Mississippi Bat Working Group held its annual meeting at the MS Museum of Natural Science in Jackson on February 6, 2020. Thirty-two people attended, representing a diversity of state and federal agencies from Mississippi and Louisiana. Participants included staff from the museum, US Fish and Wildlife Service, US Forest Service, MS Band of Choctaw Indians, Bureau of Land Management, MS Department of Transportation, US Army Corps of Engineers, USDA Wildlife Services, University of Southern Mississippi, and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. We also had several bat enthusiasts join us to hear updates from Mississippi and Louisiana’s efforts to monitor bat populations and white-nose syndrome. The BLM and USFS presented on their bat monitoring efforts in Mississippi and neighboring states, and a student from USM shared her research into the history of bat folklore and mythology.

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Annual Meeting February 6 at MMNS

January 31, 2020 0 Annual Meetings

Annual Meeting

The annual meeting of the MBWG will be held at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science on February 6, 2020 from 9 am – 4 pm. The agenda this year includes guest speakers from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife, the US Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the University of Southern Mississippi. We’ll also have updates on MS Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks and MBWG ongoing projects and monitoring efforts as well as our business meeting. Continuing education credits will be available through the Wildlife Society.

2020 Annual Meeting AgendaDownload

Kathy Shelton Memorial Fundraiser

October 31, 2019 0

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.

Updated June 29, 2021