Bats are having a moment in Montana. Hundreds of people are literally lining up at summer events across the state to learn more about the elusive animal.
Almost 200 people mill around ZooMontana in Billings on a dark August night - quietly, so that everyone can hear the chirping call of the bats gliding above them through handheld detectors. Attendance is around five times the number organizers expected, and each group shares a device.
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologist Megan O'Reilly is one of a handful of nongame wildlife biologists leading bat walks like this across the state. In Montana, more than a dozen species of migratory and nonmigratory bats eat bugs and roost in a variety of caves, forests, valley crevices and abandoned buildings.
Some of the locals who attend the event have seen an errant bat at work or home. Many say they’re hungry to know more. Dentist Deirdre Singer says she recently saw a viral video about the challenge of understanding bat movements across this vast landscape.
“That’s kind of fascinating, so that’s something I wanted to look into more,” Singer said.
Wildlife managers are jumping on this growing interest to clear up misconceptions. O'Reilly addresses some of them inside the zoo’s brightly lit gazebo: like that bats are blind (false) and that bats are dirty (also false.) She tells the crowd Montana bats are pretty clean, like cats, and are bug eaters. Research estimates bats save North American agriculture billions of dollars a year in pest control services.
O'Reilly says bats are also vulnerable to disease. They live for decades and have one baby a year, which means colonies take a long time to bounce back. If they do. She tells them a few years ago, a fungal disease wiped out a cave of 2,000 bats.
Whitenose syndrome is fatal to certain bat species and moving through Montana fast. Scientists first detected the fungus in 2020 and now believe it’s been driving a decline in eastern Montana. Researchers are rushing to stop the spread through experimentation with vaccines and other interventions, but this year, the fungus was detected for the first time west of Montana’s continental divide at the Libby Dam.
Shannon Hilty is in her third year as Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks’ new “bat biologist” and says wildlife managers were hoping for a little more time. On an August weeknight, she’s leading another tour related to bat conservation - this one along the Missouri River north of Helena.
Hilty and about 40 people settle into a boat traveling through the Gates of the Mountains, where biologists provide a rare opportunity for members of the public to get a look at bats up close and personal through a series of evening boat tours. Hilty says there are thousands of bats in these cliffs. The first of them swoop down and skim over the surface of the water.
12-year-old Serena watches the bats from the back of the boat, where other passengers gather to see them dip in and out of the bright lights.
“I don’t know if I’ve been on a boat and I don’t know if I like it, but I honestly think bats are pretty cool,” she says.
Hilty says she’s seen the popularity of the bat boat rides grow over the last few years.
“These sell out now in minutes to the point that people are mad they didn’t get a spot,” she says.
Despite the interest, Hilty says bats still face intolerance from people more likely to kill than remove them from their properties. Wildlife managers say they hope to change the treatment of bats through events like the boat ride and the ZooMontana batwalk as the animals face a critical need for conservation.
Back in Billings, the walk is wrapping up and local contractor Chad Brown says he grew up afraid of bats and thought they just carried rabies.
“I probably believed that more before I came here,” he said. “And to know they eat grasshoppers is great, because I have a lot of those, so we're going to build one of these bat houses I think and promote keeping them around.”