Bats Aren’t Scary, but Extinction Is

Name: AGM/Members night
Start: 2025-02-20
End: 2025-02-20
Location: Almonte United Church

March 9, 2018

Guest speaker Mike Anissimoff, Canadian Wildlife Federation

We are excited to announce our next natural history presentation, to take place on Thursday night, March 15th, 2018. Guest speaker for this presentation will be bat conservation expert Mike Anissimoff of the Canadian Wildlife Service. “Bats Aren’t Scary, but Extinction Is” will be the 6th presentation in MVFN’s “When Things Go Bump in the Night” series.

Over the last decade, Mike Anissimoff has devoted his time to pursuing a passion for conservation and sustainable development of the natural world. Anissimoff has extensive experience researching both bat and bird populations. He spent five years with the Canadian Wildlife Service monitoring the abundance and distribution of migratory bat and bird populations in relation to wind energy development in Ontario. And now, at the Canadian Wildlife Federation, he leads programs for the conservation of Canada’s bats.

Little Brown Bat (*Myotis lucifugus)* photo Mike Anissimoff

Resident and hibernating bats have been plagued with white-nose syndrome, which has killed millions of bats in Canada and the United States. In addition, bat mortality associated with habitat loss, wind turbines and pesticides has further impaired survival of bat populations and has resulted in unsustainable population growth. Habitat loss has also promoted a continued reliance, for some bat species, on anthropogenic (human-made) structures for roosting sites. Interactions between bats and humans become inevitable, but cohabitation can be important for the animals’ survival. Wildlife control companies play a major role in managing and mitigating the impacts of these interactions. The Canadian Wildlife Federation is working to increase public and industry awareness of bats, to encourage a better understanding of their ecology, and to contribute to the eventual recovery of healthy populations.

Anissimoff’s presentation will explore the basic species-specific intricacies of bat life cycles for our local bats, and apply the information to approaches and efforts to conserve these wild species.

DID YOU KNOW?

“Bats have had a bad rap for years, but they are more closely related to people than you might think. How much do you know about bats?”

Take the Canadian Wildlife Federation bat quiz

MVFN EVENT DETAILS

Thursday March 15, 2018 / 7:30 PM / Almonte United Church 106 Elgin St. Almonte, ON

Doors to the social hall at Almonte United Church will open at 7 PM and the program gets underway at 7:30 PM. Refreshments are available throughout the evening and a discussion will follow the presentation. As always, the event is free for MVFN members and youth 18 and under. Everyone is welcome, $5 for non-members fee at the door. For further information please contact MVFN’s Program Chair Gretta Bradley at glbradley@icloud.com or visit mvfn.ca.