Discovery last year of a maternal colony of Townsend's big-eared bats by an eastern Washington WDFW biologist will enable scientists to conduct further studies. Meanwhile, funding is being sought to enable researchers to collect tissue samples on a coastal species called Keen's myotis, so the species range may be established. It's after 10 pm on an early July evening when the first bat is spotted flying by, a signal that it's time to open the nets. In a sage brush-carpeted canyon in eastern Washington's Douglas County, a small group of biologists in waders and old tennis shoes are spread out along the small stream and its shallow pools. As the evening's last light clings to the horizon, the canyon floor relinquishes some of its heat into the moonless night.
Insects are everywhere.
Strung between poles like volleyball nets, the mist nets straddle the water just inches above the surface. The idea is to capture bats in these nets as they swoop down on the pools to take their first drinks of the night. Soon a steady stream of figures emerge from the dark carrying small fabric bags - depositories for this night's treasures. Thus begins a process by which, on this night alone, nearly 100 bats of 12 species will be captured, identified, measured, appreciated, and finally, released back into the night from which they came. Fifteen bat species inhabit Washington and comprise a group of animals that is not well understood.