Student receives grant to study bats

Biology major Bri Birsa to get rabies vaccination with grant funds

Carthage biology major Bri Birsa, '11, has been awarded a grant from the Racine Zoological Society for her research on bats, bat activity and their habitats. Bri, a senior from Joliet, Ill., received $600 from the zoo's Thomas Torhorst Wildlife Conservation Fund. She will use the money toward a rabies vaccination, so she can expand her research and work with live bats.

"I was pretty excited," Bri said of the grant. She worked with Carthage biology professor Deanna Byrnes on bat research through an independent study project last semester and a Summer Undergraduate Research Experience project over the summer. "I plan to continue the research next semester," she said. "With the rabies shot, I'll be able to handle the bats, touch them and tag them."

Rabies vaccinations are expensive, she said. "It's a series of three shots and each one is around $300, so it's about $900 total." She plans to get her vaccination over Christmas break, so she can continue her research during the spring term.

Summer research: Measuring bat activity through acoustic monitoring

Over the summer, Bri and three other Carthage students worked with Prof. Byrnes to monitor area bat activity through acoustic monitoring. Their objective was to gain a deeper understanding of bats' interaction with their surrounding ecosystems, as part of larger bat conservation efforts.

"There is a disease that is affecting bats called white-nose syndrome," Bri explained. "The disease started in New York in 2006 and is decimating bat populations. In some caves, there's been a 90 to 100 percent mortality rate. ... White-nose syndrome is a soil fungus that starts to develop around bats' noses. It speeds up their metabolism during hibernation, so they wake up and use up their fat stores by flying around, but there is no food available so they starve."

The disease has already spread from Vermont to Missouri. "Scientists are trying to gather as much information on bats as they can right now," Bri said.

During their summer SURE project, Prof. Byrnes and her students used a hand-held bat detector to monitor nocturnal activity at 12 different survey sites in the area, including along the Pike River on the Carthage campus, at Bong Recreation Center, and in Petrifying Springs Park. They compared activity at standing water sites (ponds and lakes) to activity at moving water sites (rivers and streams).

Vaccination means more detailed information

The students did not catch or handle the bats during their summer research, although Bri said handling the bats will provide more accurate information.

"With the bat detector, you can't 100 percent confidently identify the species by its echolocation pulse because there's so much variation," she said. "This way, you could actually have a visual representation for the bat, correctly identify it, tell what age class it's in, and whether it's male or female, pregnant or lactating. Then, once you release it, you can follow it with your bat detector so you know its echolocation call."

Prof. Byrnes said it will be helpful to have a student on her team who has been vaccinated against rabies.

"We will be able to do some mist-netting and trapping and get some more information about the bats in the different colonies in the area," she said. "We've located one, possibly two, maternity colonies. It will be useful to be able to capture some of them and take measurements."

It's also a great opportunity for Bri to gain hands-on experience in ecological research, Prof. Byrnes said. "That kind of experience handling animals and taking the data you need to take when you're in the field will be really valuable if she continues in wildlife or ecology," she said.

"Handling a wild animal is pretty amazing," Prof. Byrnes continued. "That in itself can be life-changing. Thinking back to my own experience as an undergrad, one of the first research experiences I had was to work with an ornithologist. To see an animal that close, it opens up a whole new way of thinking about biology."

Next up: National conference on bat research

This week, Bri will travel with Dr. Byrnes to the North American Society for Bat Research meeting in Denver, Colo., where she hopes to network with other students and professors.

"She is very motivated and enthusiastic," Prof. Byrnes said of Bri. "She is curious and interested, and has really great questions. And she's really good at digging down into them and putting the ideas back together.

"I thought (the meeting) would be a good opportunity for her to see what graduate students do and what kinds of questions they're asking and trying to answer," Prof. Byrnes continued. "It's just such a great experience for students to see what else is going on and to start imagining potential futures for themselves."

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