NH Bat Counts

Be the most creative host in your neighborhood – host a bat count this summer! New Hampshire’s two most common bat species, the little brown bat and the big brown bat, use buildings as their summer roosts. Abandoned houses, barns, church steeples – and even currently-occupied structures – can provide a summer home to female bats and their young.

Monitoring these “maternity colonies” can give biologists a good idea of how bat populations in an area are doing from year to year. With the occurrence of White Nose Syndrome in New Hampshire, monitoring these colonies is more important than ever. People in states all across eastern US are counting bats this summer. Won’t you join them?

Colonies can be monitored by conducting a “bat count” at a summer colony in your area. We ask that you count bats as they exit their summer roost at dusk in June, then again later in the summer to see how the colony has grown as pups begin flying. The documents below provide all of the information you need to get started. So please, grab a friend or two and go batty this summer for conservation.

How to Do a Bat Count- Instructions for how and when to conduct a ‘bat count’ once you locate a summer bat colony.  

All data sheets should be filled out and returned to the address at the bottom of this page OR report your count online. Your privacy is important to us; your information is only used for this research project.