Bat Surveys underway across SC

This summer, if you see a DNR truck slowly riding down a rural road about an hour after sundown, it might be part of a project surveying bat populations across the state. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service fund the Carolinas Acoustic Bat Project, where researchers drive carefully specified routes two consecutive nights with a recording device mounted on the cab of their trucks. The 20-mile routes must be driven at 20 mph in order to capture the data accurately. The recordings are then analyzed to determine which species of bats were heard and how abundant they were. Partners in the project include the DNR, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Clemson University, the U.S. Forest Service Southern Experimental Station and the National Wildlife Refuge System. Motorists are advised to please be patient if you end up driving behind one of these surveys. If researchers stop to let you pass, or deviate from 20 mph, it disrupts the data collection, potentially ruining the entire night’s work.