Students in BYU-Idaho's Wildlife Management program frequently work with local research groups and believe they may be the first to discover a bat hibernaculum, or hibernation spot, in the western U.S.
Mikayla Khilobok is one of the BYU-Idaho students who has coordinated with the Idaho Falls Zoo at Tautphaus Park on researching bats and holding educational nights to teach about bats. One of the things they teach is how bats leave during the winter for hibernation.
“We get a lot of farmers that go to bat nights and talk about how that can't be true ‘because I see bats all winter long out on my farm,’” Khilobok said.
They thought this was interesting because researchers don't actually know where the local bat populations go to hibernate.
“A lot of them were talking about some old lava tube caves along the river that they were convinced the bats had to be living in,” Khilobok said.
The zoo researchers and students made a trip out to those caves along the east side of the Teton River and found significant evidence to support the caves being a bat hibernaculum.
In the next few days, they will place devices in the caves that can detect bat activity through the winter.
Eight of the 14 bat species in Idaho are considered "conservation concerns," or in other words, their population appears to be weak.
“It would help us protect those species and make sure that they are thriving and especially over those winter months that they're not being disturbed,” Khilobok said.
If the caves turn out to be a hibernaculum, the caves will likely have restrictions placed on them to protect the bats.
Khilobok says protecting bats is important, especially for farmers.
“Bats eat so many of the pests that get into the farm fields,” Khilobok said.
The researchers at the Idaho Falls Zoo and BYU-Idaho hope this discovery will lead to more similar discoveries of hibernaculum locations in Idaho.