BCI WORKSHOPS 2006 Bat Conservation and Management Workshops
Each year Bat Conservation International offers a comprehensive curriculum for an introductory field workshop designed to train serious students of bat conservation in the current research and management techniques for the study of bats. Following an intensive 6-day and 5-night agenda, BCI biologists and professional colleagues will bring workshop participants a combination of lectures and discussions, field trips to view bat habitat resources, and hands-on training to catch and identify bats. Learn species identification, netting, radio-tracking, night-vision observation, and habitat assessment, while working in extraordinary settings. An Arizona workshop in the Chiricahua Mountains emphasizes western bats. The Chiricahuas offer a biodiversity unequalled anywhere else in North America. You can expect to see, and even to capture and handle, as many as 18 bat species in a single evening, and then watch endangered long-nosed bats visit hummingbird feeders at your front door. Participants have also enjoyed spotting ring-tailed cats, coatis, and trogans. BCI workshop veteran Janet Tyburec, Dr. Katy Hinman, and Arizona Game and Fish Department biologists will share a wealth of knowledge on species identification (including by echolocation calls), bat conservation, management, education, public health and nuisance issues, artificial habitats, and much more. We will stay at the American Museum of Natural Historys famous Southwest Research Station, where you will enjoy superb dining with researchers from around the world. Two sessions: June 12-17 and June 17-22, 2006. Each session limited to 15 people. Departure city: Tucson, AZ. Cost: $1295 Our Pennsylvania workshop highlights eastern bats and their habitats. Well net, trap, and release bats over trout streams and beaver ponds, observe endangered Indiana bats swarming at a mine entrance, watch 20,000 little brown bats in a spectacular dawn return to their roost at a restored church, and examine them up close. Workshop co-leader, Cal Butchkoski of the Pennsylvania Game Commission, is a leading expert on surveying and radio-tracking Indiana bats, as well as one of Americas most successful builders of bat houses and other artificial roosts. He and Janet Tyburec will share a wealth of knowledge covering all aspects of bat conservation, management, education, public health and nuisance issues. Home cooking is but one of many unexpected treats at historic Greene Hills Lodge, our workshop headquarters. One session: August 7-12, 2006. Limited to 20 people. Departure city: Harrisburg, PA. Cost: $1295 A Kentucky workshop focuses on cave-dwelling bats, taking us to the heart of America's karst country at the Cave Research Foundation's Hamilton Valley facility. In the company of experts, we'll visit hibernation and nursery caves of endangered gray and Indiana myotis, and learn how to detect bats' prior use of caves and to identify habitat conditions that meet their needs. Fieldwork includes netting and harp-trapping at cave entrances and at nearby feeding and drinking habitats, with hands-on identification of 10 Eastern species. We will visit bat gates with their designers and also discuss habitat assessment, field research techniques, bat houses, and public health issues. One session: August 16-21, 2006. Limited to 20 people. Departure city: Nashville, TN. Cost: $1295 ACOUSTIC MONITORING WORKSHOP In response to many requests, BCI is offering an acoustic monitoring workshop session in conjunction with our Bat Conservation and Management sessions in Portal, Arizona. The workshop will cover hardware and software including Anabat, Pettersson and SonoBat, teach call identifications and how to develop a monitoring program. Joining BCI's Janet Tyburec will be acoustic experts Sybill Amelon, Joe Szewczak, and Ted Weller. The session format will be similar to BCI's Bat Conservation and Management workshops combining current research discussion with hands-on demonstrations and field work. Each night we will be capturing bats and developing call libraries so participants can return to their home study areas and begin their own projects armed with knowledge and experience. BCI will have equipment on hand but participants are encouraged to bring there own systems as well. The Acoustic Monitoring Workshop is an advanced workshop designed for graduates of previous BCI workshops and/or experienced bat workers. One session: June 22-27, 2006. Limited to 15 people. Departure city: Tucson, AZ. Cost: $1295 For information and registration forms, visit www.batcon.org or contact Kari Gaukler, BCI, PO Box 162603, Austin, TX 78716; 512-327-9721; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
