- Author: Robert J Keiffer
The UC Hopland Research & Extension Center has seven multi-chamber bat houses placed around the Center at different elevations and in different habitat types. This is not part of any specific research project, but rather an attempt to gather some crude but quick data on the use of the boxes, seasonal variation, bat species, etc.
Here you see a Pallid Bat (Antrozous pallidus) lit up in the reflected light (mirror). Pallid BAts have a unique foraging style taht allows them to pick up prey from the ground, such as scorpions and crickets.
Also observed in this same box at the same time were a Mexican Free-tailed Bat and several Myotis Bats (probably California Myotis). We are hoping that some basic baseline data may entice a potential researcher to conduct a full scale research project on bats here at HREC.