Jackson Group was tasked by Shoener Environmental, Inc., located in Portage Pennsylvania, to conduct an autumn migration study of bats in Kankakee County, Illinois, with special focus on the Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis) northern long-eared bat (M. septentrionalis), federally listed endangered and threatened bat on a regional scale.
Jackson Group coordinated with the United States Fisheries and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, as well as other local agencies and landowners, to ensure that the proper completion of this migration project.
This was primarily a radiotelemetry project. All northern long-eared bats were equipped with NanoTag coated transmitters by LOTEK. These are long term transmitters, designed to last up to 120 days. Permanent monitoring towers in the area record the marked northern long-eared bats as they fly, to give researchers an idea of their movement patterns during autumn swarming.
Forty (4) bats were captured during the duration of this project, comprising five (5) species. They were the big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus) (40%, n = 16), tri-colored bat (Perimyotis subflavus), (5%, n = 2), eastern red bat (Lasiurus borealis) (40%, n = 16), hoary bat (L. cinerus) (5%, n = 2), and northern long-eared bat (10%, n = 4). All surveying was completed by biologists federally permitted by the USFWS to survey for Indiana bats (M. sodalis) and northern long-eared bats.
