Each year, Bat Conservation International (BCI) offers a series of comprehensive, introductory field workshops to train serious students of bat conservation in current research and management techniques for the study of bats. Following an intensive 6-day, 5-night agenda, participants will experience a combination of lectures and discussions, field trips to view bat habitat resources and hands-on training to catch and identify bats. Learn species identification, netting, radio-tracking, night-vision observation and habitat assessment while working in extraordinary settings.

An Arizona workshop in the Chiricahua Mountains emphasizes western bats. The Chiricahuas offer a biodiversity unequalled anywhere else in North America. You can expect to see, capture and handle as many as 18 bat species in a single evening, and then watch endangered long-nosed bats visit hummingbird feeders at your front door. Participants have also enjoyed spotting ring-tailed cats, coatis, and trogans. BCI workshop veteran Janet Tyburec, along with BCI biologists and professional colleagues will share a wealth of knowledge on species identification (including by echolocation calls), bat conservation, management, education, public health and nuisance issues, artificial habitats and much more. We will stay at the American Museum of Natural History's famous Southwestern Research Station, where you will enjoy superb dining with researchers from around the world. Each session limited to 16 people. Vew details.

A Kentucky workshop will focus on underground environments and their importance to bats, including the federally endangered gray and Indiana myotis. In partnership with the National Park Service at Mammoth Cave, students will explore cave habitats and learn to assess past bat use by identifying hibernation staining and quantifying historic guano piles. All fieldwork here is part of a vital, long-term inventory program for the Park Service. This workshop is limited to 20 people per session. Vew details.

Our Pennsylvania workshop highlights eastern bats and their habitats. We'll net, trap and release bats over trout streams and beaver ponds, observe endangered Indiana bats swarming at a mine entrance, watch 20,000 little brown myotis in a spectacular dawn return to their roost at a restored church and examine them up close. Workshop co-leader Cal Butchkoski of the Pennsylvania Game Commission is a leading expert on surveying and radio-tracking Indiana bats, as well as one of America's most successful builders of bat houses and other artificial roosts. Cal and Janet Tyburec, joined by local consultant John Chenger, will share a wealth of knowledge covering all aspects of bat conservation, management, education and public health and nuisance issues. Home cooking is but one of many unexpected treats at historic Greene Hills Manor, our workshop headquarters. This session is limited to 20 people. Vew details.

ACOUSTIC
MONITORING WORKSHOP
BCI is offering an acoustic monitoring workshop session at the Southwestern Research Station in Portal, Arizona. This workshop will cover hardware and software including Anabat and SonoBat and teach call identifications and how to develop a monitoring program. Participants will learn directly from software developers Chris Corben and Joe Szewczak, along with acoustic experts Sybill Amelon and Ted Weller. The format will be similar to BCI's Bat Conservation and Management workshops, combining discussions of current research with hands-on demonstrations and fieldwork. Each night, we will be capturing bats and developing call libraries so participants can return to their home study areas and begin their own projects armed with knowledge and experience. BCI will have equipment available, but participants are encouraged to bring there own systems. The Acoustic Monitoring Workshop is an advanced workshop designed for graduates of previous BCI workshops and/or experienced bat workers. Acoustic Monitoring workshop is limited to 15 people. Vew details.