Welcome to the 2020 Virtual Mist Net Event, hosted by the Mississippi Bat Working Group. Join us throughout the week of October 24-31 to learn more about Mississippi’s bats.
You can help support the Mississippi Bat Working Group by purchasing a mist net event t-shirt. Click here to fill out an order form. Once you submit your form you can mail your payment or we will send you a secure Paypal link to pay online.
Day One: Welcome to the Mississippi Bat Working Group! Group chair Becky Rosamond introduces the group and explains how our virtual mist net event compares to our traditional annual events. Thanks for watching and come back tomorrow to see content on basic bat biology and a species profile of the Eastern red bat.
Day 2: Chester Martin discusses basic bat biology in two video shorts and Amber Floyd introduces the Eastern red bat.
Day 3: Deb Davis and Dr. Nicole Hodges, both Mississippi Bat Working Group members from the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science join the virtual mist net event today. Deb discusses some of the fascinating adaptations bats use to survive, and Nicole explains where bats naturally occur and where they have adapted to use manmade structures.
Day 4: Alison McCartney and Katelin Cross describe the different tools researchers use to capture bats and collect data before releasing them back into the wild.
Day 5: Kris Godwin of USDA Wildlife Services explains how to prevent bats from roosting in your home and how to safely and ethically remove bats if they do find their way into a building.
Day 6: Kelly Morris of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services shares tips and best practices for bat boxes and Becky Rosamond introduces the evening bat, a common bat house visitor.
Day 7: Dr. Nicole Hodges explains how viruses like rabies and coronavirus impacts both bats and humans. Then, Becky Rosamond provides a species profile of the Southeastern myotis, a species closely tied to Mississippi’s bottomland hardwood forests.
Day 8: Happy Halloween! It’s the last day of our virtual mist net event. Thanks for joining us and we hope you enjoyed the videos. We wrap up the event with another pair of videos by Dr. Nicole Hodges and Becky Rosamond. Dr. Hodges explains how two diseases – white nose syndrome and histoplasmosis – are caused by fungi. Then Becky provides a species profile of tricolored bats.