Small wooden tree-mounted boxes for bats are an increasingly common sight in B.C.’s urban parks, often resembling birdhouses except with entrances underneath.
After a string of tragedies near bat boxes, B.C. scientists teamed up to investigate.
What they learned over four years, they say, has changed how we should be building summertime homes for mother bats and their pups, with the species’ survival at stake.
“For them to to raise that young they need just-right temperatures to do so,” explained study co-author Cori Lausen. “And all it takes is about a degree or two to put the temperatures of these bat boxes into a lethal zone.”
Based in Kaslo, B.C., nearly 200 kilometres east of Kelowna in B.C.’s Interior, Lausen is considered a foremost bat expert, known for her Royal B.C. Museum handbook Bats of British Columbia.
Their findings: for bat species that raise offspring in roosts — usually tree hollows or building attics — a single-room occupancy home is not safe without multiple other areas nearby to move to if they overheat.
Even better are multi-unit buildings they nicknamed bat “condos.”
“That gives them more options,” explained another bat researcher, Susan Dulc, at Thompson Rivers University. “For reproductive females that form colonies, bigger and more is better.”
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Red flags for survival
The Wildlife Conservation Society Canada launched its study after a troubling series of incidents near bat boxes, said Lausen, who directs the non-profit’s western bat program.
“The main red flag occurred right around four or five years ago,” Lausen recalled. “We were starting to notice bats dropping dead out of bat boxes and in some cases big piles of dead bats.”
One particularly tragic incident occurred at ƛ̓éxətəm Regional Park in Port Coquitlam, about 25 kilometres east of Vancouver, then called Colony Farm. It was a wake-up call.
“It’s particularly depressing for myself, because I have put my entire adult life into trying to save them,” Lausen said. “We started looking more closely at why that might be going on.”
Their study — “Best Management Practices for the Use of Bat Houses in the US and Canada” — looked into which structures were best designed to help bats survive temperature fluctuations. They recommend roosts with at least four rooms, or multiple boxes with varying degrees of sun exposure.
In particular, researchers focused on summertime shelters used by three at-risk bat species: yuma myotis, big brown bats, and little brown myotis.
The latter species was declared endangered a decade ago by the federal government, which stated it’s at risk of “catastrophic declines” to less than one per cent of its population due to “massive mortality events.”
Both species are also at particular risk for a severe and fatal fungus known as white-nose syndrome, which has killed millions of bats.
“Watching bats die is not what any of us really want to see,” Lausen said.
She said she’s been heartened to see more people going to some effort to help the furry flyers — including landowners manually raising and lowering sun shades during heat waves to cool their bat houses out of concern. Lausen’s new design advice makes that task easier.
“It’s been fabulous watching how many people care about the bats,” she said. “There’s so many roles that bats play by being the main consumer of nighttime insects.”
“We need bats; of course, they need us too.”
Kaslo, B.C., scientist Cori Lausen, author of Bats of British Columbia, holds a bat as part of her research. Her face mask and gloves are for the bat’s safety, not just hers. (Submitted by Michael Proctor)
‘Love at first bite’
Lausen is part of a small but passionate community of researchers who focus on the flying mammals.
Her obsession with bats started two decades ago, during her biology undergraduate studies, when she encountered her first bat up close.
“It was kind of love at first bite for me — literally — because it was a big brown bat in an attic, and it bit,” she recounted. “I realized this is a wild animal that we know so little about.
“That first bat I held was older than me. I thought, ‘How is that even possible, this tiny little animal?'”
Some species of the nocturnal animals can live for well over 20 or even 30 years, Lausen said, and most only have one or two babies a year.
They are the only mammal that has evolved to fly. But not all bats live in large colonies, nor do they spend all year hanging from cave roofs — a behaviour generally reserved for hibernation, if there are no insects to eat.
“There’s a lot of myths,” Lausen said. “For many years, people have expressed fear of bats … Humans tend to think negative things about things we don’t really understand or we can’t see.
“Bats are underdogs, really, in many ways.”
A massive building for a bat colony is seen near Creston, B.C., one of the examples of a climate change-resilient habitat for the at-risk species, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society Canada. (Submitted by Jared Hobbs)
There are risks to handling or being bitten by bats: they can occasionally transmit rabies, and experts believe bat species in Asia played a role in the origins of human coronaviruses. Researchers get rabies vaccines and wear protective equipment.
But for non-scientists, Lausen said the risks are negligible.
“That’s for us to worry about,” she said. “People shouldn’t be handling bats, but as just a member of the public, you don’t have to worry.”
Bat scientists wear thick gloves, respirator masks, and sometimes protective suits when handling the animals.
“For their protection,” Dulc added, “not ours.”
Bat scientist Susan Dulc, a Master’s student at Thompson Rivers University, examines a camera to monitor the exit of an artificial bat habitat in B.C.’s Interior. (Submitted by Jared Hobbs)
She remembers her first encounter with the furry flyers, where she instantly wanted to help them survive.
In 2012, Dulc was studying butterflies, when Lausen invited her to help put out bat nets over a lake.
Dulc discovered one tangled in the water and plunged to its rescue without hesitation.
“The water was so deep it filled my waders up,” she recalled. “I didn’t really care, ‘I’ve got to make sure this poor little bat doesn’t drown.’
“I think they’re really, really cute. All of them. They’re misrepresented.”
A little brown myotis bat, also known as an MYLU, is seen in a photograph. (Submitted by Cori Lausen)
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
The European Space Agency is fast-tracking a new mission called Ramses, which will fly to near-Earth asteroid 99942 Apophis and join the space rock in 2029 when it comes very close to our planet — closer even than the region where geosynchronous satellites sit.
Ramses is short for Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety and, as its name suggests, is the next phase in humanity’s efforts to learn more about near-Earth asteroids (NEOs) and how we might deflect them should one ever be discovered on a collision course with planet Earth.
In order to launch in time to rendezvous with Apophis in February 2029, scientists at the European Space Agency have been given permission to start planning Ramses even before the multinational space agency officially adopts the mission. The sanctioning and appropriation of funding for the Ramses mission will hopefully take place at ESA’s Ministerial Council meeting (involving representatives from each of ESA’s member states) in November of 2025. To arrive at Apophis in February 2029, launch would have to take place in April 2028, the agency says.
This is a big deal because large asteroids don’t come this close to Earth very often. It is thus scientifically precious that, on April 13, 2029, Apophis will pass within 19,794 miles (31,860 kilometers) of Earth. For comparison, geosynchronous orbit is 22,236 miles (35,786 km) above Earth’s surface. Such close fly-bys by asteroids hundreds of meters across (Apophis is about 1,230 feet, or 375 meters, across) only occur on average once every 5,000 to 10,000 years. Miss this one, and we’ve got a long time to wait for the next.
When Apophis was discovered in 2004, it was for a short time the most dangerous asteroid known, being classified as having the potential to impact with Earth possibly in 2029, 2036, or 2068. Should an asteroid of its size strike Earth, it could gouge out a crater several kilometers across and devastate a country with shock waves, flash heating and earth tremors. If it crashed down in the ocean, it could send a towering tsunami to devastate coastlines in multiple countries.
Over time, as our knowledge of Apophis’ orbit became more refined, however, the risk of impact greatly went down. Radar observations of the asteroid in March of 2021 reduced the uncertainty in Apophis’ orbit from hundreds of kilometers to just a few kilometers, finally removing any lingering worries about an impact — at least for the next 100 years. (Beyond 100 years, asteroid orbits can become too unpredictable to plot with any accuracy, but there’s currently no suggestion that an impact will occur after 100 years.) So, Earth is expected to be perfectly safe in 2029 when Apophis comes through. Still, scientists want to see how Apophis responds by coming so close to Earth and entering our planet’s gravitational field.
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“There is still so much we have yet to learn about asteroids but, until now, we have had to travel deep into the solar system to study them and perform experiments ourselves to interact with their surface,” said Patrick Michel, who is the Director of Research at CNRS at Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur in Nice, France, in a statement. “Nature is bringing one to us and conducting the experiment itself. All we need to do is watch as Apophis is stretched and squeezed by strong tidal forces that may trigger landslides and other disturbances and reveal new material from beneath the surface.”
The Goldstone radar’s imagery of asteroid 99942 Apophis as it made its closest approach to Earth, in March 2021. (Image credit: NASA/JPL–Caltech/NSF/AUI/GBO)
By arriving at Apophis before the asteroid’s close encounter with Earth, and sticking with it throughout the flyby and beyond, Ramses will be in prime position to conduct before-and-after surveys to see how Apophis reacts to Earth. By looking for disturbances Earth’s gravitational tidal forces trigger on the asteroid’s surface, Ramses will be able to learn about Apophis’ internal structure, density, porosity and composition, all of which are characteristics that we would need to first understand before considering how best to deflect a similar asteroid were one ever found to be on a collision course with our world.
Besides assisting in protecting Earth, learning about Apophis will give scientists further insights into how similar asteroids formed in the early solar system, and, in the process, how planets (including Earth) formed out of the same material.
One way we already know Earth will affect Apophis is by changing its orbit. Currently, Apophis is categorized as an Aten-type asteroid, which is what we call the class of near-Earth objects that have a shorter orbit around the sun than Earth does. Apophis currently gets as far as 0.92 astronomical units (137.6 million km, or 85.5 million miles) from the sun. However, our planet will give Apophis a gravitational nudge that will enlarge its orbit to 1.1 astronomical units (164.6 million km, or 102 million miles), such that its orbital period becomes longer than Earth’s.
It will then be classed as an Apollo-type asteroid.
Ramses won’t be alone in tracking Apophis. NASA has repurposed their OSIRIS-REx mission, which returned a sample from another near-Earth asteroid, 101955 Bennu, in 2023. However, the spacecraft, renamed OSIRIS-APEX (Apophis Explorer), won’t arrive at the asteroid until April 23, 2029, ten days after the close encounter with Earth. OSIRIS-APEX will initially perform a flyby of Apophis at a distance of about 2,500 miles (4,000 km) from the object, then return in June that year to settle into orbit around Apophis for an 18-month mission.
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Furthermore, the European Space Agency still plans on launching its Hera spacecraft in October 2024 to follow-up on the DART mission to the double asteroid Didymos and Dimorphos. DART impacted the latter in a test of kinetic impactor capabilities for potentially changing a hazardous asteroid’s orbit around our planet. Hera will survey the binary asteroid system and observe the crater made by DART’s sacrifice to gain a better understanding of Dimorphos’ structure and composition post-impact, so that we can place the results in context.
The more near-Earth asteroids like Dimorphos and Apophis that we study, the greater that context becomes. Perhaps, one day, the understanding that we have gained from these missions will indeed save our planet.
