4-H project to provide habitat for bats

[depakid]

f all goes according to plan, an environmental project at the Langley-Bell 4-H center soon could bring a new sight to evening skies over Pensacola — bats. Thousands of them.

The Escambia County Extension Service of the University of Florida's Institute for Food and Agricultural Science is constructing a "bat house" at the West Nine Mile Road center, which aims to provide habitat for as many as 50,000 of the creatures.

Carrie Stevenson, coastal sustainability agent at the Extension Service, said the goal of the project is to engage area youth in outdoor activities and teach them about local wildlife. "Bats are one of those misunderstood animals that everyone is afraid of. There is a lot of misinformation out there," Stevenson said. "They don't have rabies. They don't get in your hair. They don't bite you."

The bat house is perched two-stories high on top of four telephone poles near the edge of a grassy pasture at the 4-H center. From the outside, it looks like a small garage or a large utility shed. The floor is open, and inside, several racks of evenly spaced, plywood slats are installed on the ceiling.

Holly Ober, assistant professor of wildlife ecology at the University of Florida, said the narrow spaces between the slats simulate the natural places that bats bed down — such as behind peeling bark, or in the hollows of trees.

A similar house at the University of Florida at Gainesville is home to about 100,000 wild bats, Ober said. Many evenings at dusk, crowds of Gainesville residents and tourists gather to watch as clouds of bats stream to the house and fly overhead. Ober said the species of bats that live in Northwest Florida eat moths, beetles, flies and other insects, some of which are harmful to crops. "We shouldn't be afraid of bats. They're actually doing us a helpful service," Ober said.

Stevenson said the project cost about $8,500, and was funded with grants from the Florida and Escambia County 4-H foundations. A group of about a dozen carpentry students from Pensacola Junior College is building the house for free as a class project. Materials for the house cost about $4,500, and the rest of the grant money will go toward education programs, Stevenson said.

Rick Jones, PJC carpentry program instructor, said the students have been working on the project for about two weeks, and they expect to finish up in the next week or two. Jones said he'd never built anything like the bat house before, and he was excited to see the outcome of the project.

More: http://www.pnj.com/article/20100529/NEWS01/5290314