Bat Habitat

Monitoring bat house occupation on the Schoonover Green Roof and at the Ridges.

Within a month of a new green roof installation on Schoonover Center, a bat was observed on the roof. Perhaps it had been attracted to the new habitat this site provided, which now supports insects and plants. The discovery led to a student project to build bat houses that would be located on the green roof and at the Ridges to support the endangered bat species. Bat house kits were purchased from Bat Conservation International which has conducted studies over a 10 year period to identify the best type of bat house and where it would best attract bats. The houses need a minimum of six hours of sun exposure and must be within ¼ mile of a water source, such as the Hocking River. The bat houses we installed can support as many as 100 bats each. Bat houses have been shown to attract nursery or bachelor colonies and, rarely, can be used for hibernation (Bat Conservation International 2022).

Two articles were published about the effort in the OHIO News and The Athens News:
OHIO students build sustainable dwellings for bats across campus
Ohio University student crew creates bat dwellings as sustainability effort

After the bat houses were installed on campus, game cameras were attached to posts to monitor usage. Monitoring the bat houses will help us determine whether our local bats will make use of this resource and which of our locations is most ideal for the bat house. The game cameras have helped us view birds that occasionally land on the bat houses but no bats have made their way to the houses yet. The photos below provide a view of each of the bat house locations from a height that would capture the bats entry and exit into and from the bat houses.

To learn more about little brown bats, visit the Ohio Department of Natural Resources: https://ohiodnr.gov/discover-and-learn/animals/mammals/little-brown-bat

Note: This study was approved by IACUC.