With our combined reach, students across the U.S. will be engaged to help us build a better world. The program will highlight BCI’s work to protect Bracken Cave Preserve, fight white-nose syndrome, and save Endangered species like the Florida bonneted bat (Eumops floridanus). Students are encouraged to provide ideas for solving conservation challenges while building a future where threatened species are safe, and nature is protected.

n 2016, Bat Conservation International (BCI) and the Rainforest Trust began a project alongside the National Trust of Fiji, NatureFiji-MareqetiViti, and the Nakanacagi community of Vanua Levu, Fiji, to protect the habitat of the Fijian free-tailed bat (Mops bregullae). Also known as the Fijian mastiff, this insectivorous bat is threatened by habitat loss due to industry and climate change, tourism practices, and hunting. After years of careful coordination and collaboration between Fijian experts and community members and the BCI team, Jon Flanders, Ph.D., Director of Endangered Species Intervention, describes the Fiji project as “a phenomenal success story.”

It was especially important that the project succeed, because Nakanacagi Cave is the only confirmed Fijian free-tailed bat maternity colony. The team hopes to discover another maternity roost in the only other country where this species has been recorded. To do that—or perhaps discover a new species of bat—BCI is undertaking a project this autumn nearly 750 miles away in the neighboring country of Vanuatu.

Following a neighbor’s advice, she closed off entrance holes while the bats were out foraging and hung foul-smelling plants to discourage them from returning. It worked, and for young Iribagiza, the incident sparked an interest in bats that grew into a passion and, ultimately, a career.

As part of a bachelor’s degree in zoology and conservation, Iribagiza wrote her thesis on the straw-colored fruit bat (Eidolon helvum), a species under threat in Rwanda due to loss of habitat and bat-human conflicts.

The human-caused Black Fire was the second-largest wildfire in New Mexico history. It burned so hot that it stripped vegetation off the landscape. A severe monsoon season followed and exacerbated the problem.

Run by United States Forest Service Ecologist Ted Weller, #FirstBat is a challenge to detect the first bat of the year in each U.S. state and Canadian province; Weller’s goal is to collect as much data possible for his publicly accessible Bat Acoustic Monitoring Portal, or BatAmp. Even though competition is fierce among #FirstBat participants, coming in second, third, or 27th is still a valuable contribution to the database.

“What I’m trying to do is figure out where bats are migrating,” Weller says. “The richer our data, the better we’ll be able to show these migratory patterns.”

ennifer Barros, Ph.D., is Bat Conservation International’s (BCI) Brazil Program Manager, and she is responsible for leading BCI’s cave conservation initiative in the massive country. With more than 3 million square miles of land, Brazil is the world’s fifth-largest country by area. The country contains more than 23,000 caves—some of which provide habitat for bats.

Barros works with local communities, nonprofits, and government agencies across Brazil to protect and enhance critical roost sites for Endangered bat species throughout the region.

We caught her for a few minutes above ground to inquire about her work.

aylor Rienhart, a dedicated Girl Scout from the San Francisco Bay Area, recently earned her Gold Award, the highest accolade a Girl Scout can earn. Her project, a multi-faceted initiative aimed at bat conservation, showcased her passion for environmental science and animal conservation.

Rienhart’s project included several key components to foster awareness and support for local bat populations. One of her primary aims was to educate the public on bats and help dispel common myths. To do this, she created an informative poster and table of interesting activities that are displayed at the wildlife education center at Friends of Edgewood Natural Reserve and through the creation of an educational Instagram account. Her campaign aimed to counter negative perceptions of bats by sharing engaging, informative content about their ecological roles and local species.