Night Hike at Towner's Woods
Draws Out Bat Lovers
August 26, 2008
Friday night there were more than shadows at Towner’s Woods Park
in Kent. Over thirty participants were out to hike the trails and view the
flying creatures of the night. Under the guidance of Park District staff,
volunteers and Davey Resource staff Jessica Hickey,
Ken Christensen and Shawn Bruzda, the hikers learned
about the bats local to Ohio. The Davey Resource team
set up mist netting to capture bat specimen and demonstrated the procedure for handling
the bats. After being measured and weighed, the bats were tagged and the
information recorded to be added to the database for bats in this area. Two
species of bats were found Friday night, the Big Brown, Eptesicus fuscus, and the Little Brown, Myotis lucifugus.
There are
actually 11 species of bats that
reside Ohio: the Big Brown Bat, Little Brown Bat, Eastern Pipistrelle,
Red Bat, Indiana Bat, and Northern Long-eared Bat are the most recorded. Less
common here are the Silver-haired, Evening and Hoary bats. Even rarer, perhaps
wandering into Ohio by accident, are Rafinesque
Big-eared Bat and the Eastern Small-footed Bat. While bats are often thought of
as scary, they are an important part of the ecological system. A single Little
Brown Bat can catch up to 600 mosquitoes in an hour.
Contrary to popular myth, bats are not
attracted to your hair. Aided by radar-like sensory perception, they fly with
pinpoint precision. So, unless you’re sporting a head full of cucumber beetles,
you are safe. Also, Ohio bats do not suck blood. Out of 1,000 bat species only
three are typed as vampire bats, none of which are in Ohio or the continental
United States. Wildlife Experts remind the public to never pick up an injured
bat, bats have teeth and they will use them if they are threatened or injured. Another
wise bit of advice: Let sleeping bats hang. Hibernation places bats in a very
vulnerable condition and if disturbed they could die. Read more about Ohio bats at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
The Portage Park District offered this
hike in conjunction with the “Wild Hikes Challenge”, the District’s hiking series, the first for Portage
County. The Wild Hikes Challenge and the Heritage Tours, celebrating the county
bicentennial, have been a tremendous success all summer.