Fort Simpson (Aug 18/06) - For many people, bats conjure up images of scary late night encounters and old horror movies, but for Cori Lausen they are fascinating animals.

Lausen spent almost a month in the Nahanni National Park Reserve studying the bats of the area. Together with park staff Kim Shlosser, Jarret Hardisty and John Waithaka, she travelled down the river in search for bats.

To find bats, you need to keep bat hours. Around 9 to 10 p.m., Lausen would set up the fine mesh nets used to catch the bats. At the beginning of her study in early July, the bats would start to appear around 1:30 a.m. and stay out until 3:30 a.m. By early August, they were out at 11:20 p.m. and gone by 5 a.m.

Working with bats has its dangers. All the members of the study had to get rabies pre-exposure shots before going out. The bats don't enjoy being caught in the nets and often bite.

The bites hurt but the degree of pain depends a lot on the species and the size of their teeth, said Lausen."You just get used to it," she said.

Although Lausen is used to being bitten, it was harder for the park staff. The first instinct is to pull your hand back, but that could break the bat's bones, said Lausen. Instead, you have to sit there and take it, she said. Blowing in the bat's face often shocks them into letting go.

Netting is also challenging because of location. Most of the nets were set in swamp areas and there was a large crop of mosquitoes at the time.

"It was very, very challenging," she said.

In total, Lausen caught 17 bats that were measured, weighted, sexed and sampled for DNA before being released. In addition to using nets, Lausen also used a bat detector that turns the ultrasound calls of bats into a range that humans can hear. Lausen presented some of the findings of her study at a presentation on August 10 at the cultural centre.

Lausen, a PhD biology student at the University of Calgary, got the idea to study bats in the park two years ago when she canoed the South Nahanni River with her husband. At the time, she wondered if anyone knew much about bats in the area. As it turned out, little was known.

There are 20 species of bats in Canada and three were thought to live in the Northwest Territories although one was never confirmed. Lausen found a total of seven species including the little brown bat, northern long-eared bat, big brown bat, eastern red bat, long-legged bat and the western long-eared bat.

The bats ranged in size from the little brown that only weighs between 10-12 grams to the big brown that weights in between 15-25 grams.

"The park has an amazing bat habitat," Lausen said.

There are many rock crevices and trees for the bats to live in as well as standing water for them to drink. There are also lots of what bats like to eat.

Small bats eat a lot of mosquitoes. Some eat up to their own body weight in insects every night.

The little brown can eat 600-900 mosquitoes an hour. Bigger bats also eat beatles and moths. Knowing about bat diversity and distribution is important, Lausen said because the baseline data can be used to measure the effects of climate change and could help promote park expansion.

Lausen said she would like to return to the park in the fall to study if bats use the area to hibernate.