Be a Bat Citizen Scientist for the BC Annual Bat Count
The BC Community Bat Program is calling for volunteers to get involved in the BC Annual Bat Count. Starting June 1st, bat biologists and volunteers will be enjoying late nights, counting bats at maternity roosts throughout the province.
Female bats roost together in summer and raise their young in maternity colonies. Most of the species of bats in BC only have one pup per female. Pups are born in June and learn to fly in about 3 to 6 weeks depending on the species. The males do not help with raising the young and usually roost by themselves in large trees, rock cliffs, boulder fields, or barns and buildings.
The Annual Bat Count involves sitting outside a bat maternity roost at sunset, and for an hour, counting all the bats that come out of that roost to forage for insects. There are usually four bat counts at every roost site – two in June to count just the females and two more starting mid-July when the pups are learning to fly.
Last summer, volunteers across BC conducted 1,089 bat counts completed at 339 roost sites. Out of the 339 roost sites counted, 45% of these were located in occupied buildings and 39% were located in bat boxes or bat condos. The rest were in bridges, unoccupied buildings or out buildings.
Begun in 2012, the BC Community Bat Program now has data on seven bat species from 9,050 counts at 1,079 sites around the province. It is the only long-term monitoring program focused on bat summer roosts in BC. This summer of 2026, we will be celebrating our 15th year of the BC Annual Bat Count. Our goal will be to do at least 950 bat counts, so we can reach 10,000 bat counts in 15 years!
The counts help biologists monitor bat populations and track impacts to or recovery of species. If populations decline, it could indicate impacts from white-nose syndrome (WNS), a fungal disease that has decimated bat populations in eastern Canada and USA. The fungus that causes WNS has been detected in Grand Forks and Delta, but WNS itself has not been detected yet in BC.
Bats in BC are key predators of many night-flying insects. They are essential parts of BC’s ecosystems and provide billions of dollars of economic benefit by helping control agricultural, forest, and urban insect pests.
Please report a bat colony or sign up to help with bat counts by contacting our Community Bat Program coordinator, Michael Dunn, at michael@mayneconservancy.ca or call the Mayne Conservancy office and leave a message for Michael at 250-539-2535.
In partnership with the BC Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, the BC Community Bat Program provides information and promotes local stewardship and citizen science. The program is administered by the BC Conservation Foundation and runs thanks to many regional partners and volunteers. Find out more about the BC Community Bat Program and options for helping local bat populations at www.bcbats.ca. To support the BC Community Bat Program, donate via the BC Conservation Foundation.
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