Environment

The Boulder Series Final Part 6: Bats Are More Helpful Than You Know

The Boulder Series

Bats are often portrayed as creatures of horror. They’re popular around Halloween and in Scooby Doo intros, and they don’t spring to mind as being cute or friendly, but Boulder has actually befriended the bat, and now they’re existence in our ecosystem is essential, and they’re proving to be quite a good friend to have.

It’s common to see a bat around Colorado, especially in and around Boulder, given our location near to the flat irons, which are an excellent place to be if you are a bat. Though, bats might be more common than you think. 45% of all bat species in the US can be found in Colorado, most of which are located in Boulder County. They are closely monitored by volunteer groups that help to watch the bat activity in Colorado, all coming from a selection of different state park, open space, and wildlife branches of local government for the sake of keeping our bats safe and thriving.

And why would they do this? The many species of bats that live in boulder have actually become incredibly important to the ecosystem in Boulder in many different ways, from their poop, to their diet, and even their significant impact on things like medical care and pesticides.

Bat poop, also known as guano, can actually be used a fertilizer. It is also used in many household items, things commonly used for cleaning up. And they produce a lot of it, with the way they eat bugs. Their diet, is in fact, probably the biggest immediate benefit Boulder gets out of their winged friends. Brown bats are a very common species found here, and a single one can eat six hundred mosquitos in an hour. A whole nest of them can totally change the bug populations in our world, which makes for a better balanced ecosystem, and less bug infested, itchy summers for all.

Bats are also on the leading edge of several kinds of medical interests, such as their amazing hearing and echolocation that continues to be studied to help understand and improve our own technologies for the hearing impaired. They also produce a type of anticoagulants, or a blood thinner, that proves to be even better than many medicines on the market today. And finally, another fantastic perk to having the only flying mammal around in such an abundance would be for the simple fact that where there are less bugs, there are less pesticides. Local farmers can enjoy being able to ensure less chemicals in the food that they produce simply because the bats are already hard at work to fill their bellies.

So, the next time that you see a bat house set up near a body of water, you can be very proud to know that it is there, and to know that the bats that might be huddled inside are doing a lot each day at dusk to ensure that our summers are as bug free as we can make them, and that just having them near us to appreciate and learn from can help society continue to build and grow.

The Boulder Series Part 5: Local Environmental Projects

The Boulder Series

In a state like Colorado, knowing that there is wildlife around us comes to most Boulder residents as a given. It’s no shock to see a deer in the early morning, or see small chipmunks or mice scurrying about while hiking. Many people see a group of prairie dogs and think nothing of them; they’re just a part of our every day lives. However, there are biologists that are paying closer attention, from the smallest creatures to the largest, and they are always working on a variety of projects to help us help the wilder side of our state live with us too.

For instance, many residents know that where there is open space in Colorado, there are prairie dogs who live there. But in fact Boulder County has started to place restrictions on the little guys, but for their own good. With their large numbers, they can seem pretty under foot, and can wander into places that aren’t good for them. So, people working with this prairie dog management have categorized areas that are good, pretty okay, and not a place that’s safe for colonies. This can seem pretty boring, but what we have learned about the colonies and the best place for their habitats has created the opportunity for Boulder County to move forward with plans to reintroduce other species of ferret back into our wildlife, and that’s pretty cool.

Boulder and Jefferson counties have also been keeping busy with research on mountain lions, specifically pertaining to how to protect them from us, and us from them. It’s not unheard of for mountain lions to come into conflict with humans in the past, and as the population of Boulder grows and more and more people are getting out on the trails, these kinds of instances happen more and more often. It’s also true that relocation of the animal in this situation is also not always the best solution and can have results that are even worse for the animal then whatever situation they came from. So, studies have been conducted in the past, and more in the future, for a special kind of condition used with the wild animals so that they are safer, and have the ability to protect themselves better in the future.

It can be pretty lack luster, but the truth of the matter is there is still so much about the wild parts of our state that we don’t understand fully yet. And, if you are in possession of a motion sensor wild life camera, you can help! Boulder County Open Space has a project currently running called Critter Snap, which is an ongoing amalgam of wild beasties in our area, and already has over one hundred volunteers. The purpose is to understand what is around us and how often they come by, but the project is open to all who wish to view it as it is underway. So, if you’d like to participate, you’d be furthering local scientific studies at a very low cost to you, and if not, you can always pop over to their web page and take a look at the frankly beautiful quick shots of nature. Science may not always be exciting, but it sure can be pretty, regardless.