Batty about bats: An unusual luncheon opportunity this week!
By Contributor
This Thursday, November 24th, the Kootenay Association for Science and Technology (KAST) will be offering an Environmental Networking Seminar Luncheon (ENSL) featuring a presentation on state-of-the-art bat research by Dr. Cori Lausen at the Trail campus of Selkirk College.
Lausen will be providing a glimpse into her unique world – 18 years of bat research in the Fort Shepherd Conservancy area and beyond. A Kaslo resident, Lausen holds a Masters and a PhD in bat ecology from the University of Calgary, and is currently launching her next research project: four years of winter bat behaviour monitoring in BC, with a focus on the Kootenay region. She will provide a broad overview of bats of BC, discuss her ongoing research, the importance of bats to our ecosystem and the threats they face.
As the longest-lived and slowest-reproducing mammals for their size, bats are sensitive to population depletion. As the primary consumer of night-time insects, including agricultural and forestry pests, they are also an integral component of our ecosystem. Bats now face conservation risks on a continental scale, with a new disease in hibernating bats depleting populations in the eastern U.S. and Canada at an alarming rate. British Columbia, blessed with the greatest species diversity of bats anywhere in Canada, has the most to lose. In addition to disease, bats are being killed by wind turbines; wind energy development in the province is expected to boom.
Designed to bring together students and the environmental science and business communities in the West Kootenay, the ENSL series features presentations by local scientists working in the environmental sector, lunch and networking.
The luncheon will be held from 11:30am to 1:30pm and the cost is $10. Please click here to register online.
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