Biology students take closer look at bats this spooky season

Each October as Halloween decorations begin appearing in yards and on storefronts, Pittsburg State University Biology students gather for a sundown ritual: to trap and document bats that fly out of culverts.

It has nothing to do with the holiday, however, and everything to do with contributing to the world of science. Gray Bats are federally endangered and at risk for white-nose syndrome - first reported in Kansas in 2018.

The team's primary focus: to track the fall migration from the maternity roost in Pittsburg to the Ozark caves they use for hibernation.

"There is a gap in knowledge over the movement of bats, so we're trying to understand where these Gray Bats are going and the routes taken during migration," said Braidy Hunt, a May 2025 Biology graduate.

Hunt will be the featured speaker at the Sperry-Galligar Audubon meeting in Yates Hall at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 30. It is open to the public. The organization is hosted by Pitt State Biology and headed up by Associate Professor Andrew George, who began the Gray Bat study in Pittsburg in 2018.

To capture the data, they use infrared video equipment to record and count the bats as they emerge from their roosts. Occasionally they set up harp traps - traps comprised of fishing line - so they can handle the bats. Bats can be tested for white-nose syndrome with a swab of their wings.

Each time they trap, George and his students take biometric data (weight, sex, reproductive status, and so on), which provides a picture of the health and makeup of the Pittsburg bat population.

Questions and answers

Since the study began, George and his students have expanded it to answer several questions. They've learned a great deal.

"For example, we have learned more about their foraging behavior around strip pits (a habitat created after coal mining), and how their numbers change over the season as babies are born, and as bats arrive from elsewhere," George said.

The team has had interesting recaptures: two bats last year were at least 11 and 13 years old, based on their bands.

"We know Gray Bats travel twice a year between their summer roosts and the Ozark caves where they hibernate, but very little is known about exactly when they depart and which caves they use," George said. "Do our local bats all go to the same caves for winter, or do they split and use different caves? Is this connectivity related to the spread of white-nose syndrome? How do bats navigate? And so on."

Last October, the team learned that one female Gray Bat that weighed ~12 grams left Pittsburg just after sundown, and flew to Coffin Cave in Missouri, 107 miles, in 6.5 hours.

"How did this bat find the cave (i.e., a hole in the ground under a canopy of trees)? Had it been there before? Did it travel with other bats? Will it return to Pittsburg next spring?" George said.

Valuable skills

Like other students involved with the research, Hunt learned valuable field skills to prepare for a future career in conservation or field biology - skills like handling experience and the use of radiotelemetry.

"They're skills that employers look for in an experienced and trustworthy candidate," Hunt said.

Owen Long, a junior working on the bat study this fall, hopes to gain skills in data processing and collection and trap maintenance so he can one day use those skills with a range of species.

"Gray Bats are one of the only bat species to use caves all year round, so the fact that they're living in Pittsburg is quite interesting," he said.

Hunt said the experience and skills she gained helped land her a job this summer with the Missouri Department of Conservation's bat crew.

Real-world impact

The work is funded by a grant from the Kansas Department of Wildlife & Parks, with help from the Missouri Department of Conservation, and will establish a baseline of data that can be useful to scientists in the future.

According to the U.S. Forest Service, bats are valuable as for insect control. An individual bat can consume up to its body weight in insects in one night. Bats in Kansas eat many agricultural pests such as the corn earworm moth. By some estimates, George said, bats may provide the equivalent of more than $20 billion in pest control to U.S. farmers each year.

George's study will help scientists determine how populations are changing over time.

Research

This project is one of many research projects students conduct in the Biology Department in a range of topic areas under the guidance of expert faculty members.

Learn more

Learn more about PSU's Biology program at https://www.pittstate.edu/biology/