When hunting bats emit one echolocation pulse per wing beat. There are many more questions to be answered about bats in the Yukon. For example, no one knows where the bats go in winter, though Slough suspects that they head for thermokarst caves in southeast Alaska. Slough hopes that his research will also help to educate people about bats, which still have a bad reputation in some circles. The more we understand about them, the more we realize their value and place in natural ecosystems.
Bats fill a very important niche in the natural world.
For example, all northern bats are insect eaters, and a species like the little brown myotis can catch 600 or more insects in an hour. Bat species are in decline around the world, as these species are very vulnerable to extinction. Most females produce only one pup each year, and in winter bats often form huge colonies where they are very vulnerable to human disturbance. But a major step in conserving bats and learning more about them is finding out which species live in territory. It s the whole question of determining the species and what their important habitats are.