On warm summer nights in Denver, bats appear just after sunset, zigzagging to hunt insects. Denver resident Nicole Shorts asked CPR’s Colorado Wonder a question:
“When I look up in the sky, I see bunches of bats fluttering around. I was wondering, where do they roost during the day? Where do they go?”
That question led Nicole and me to Dailey Park in her neighborhood, south west of Denver’s downtown. There we met Paige Singer, a conservation ecologist with Rocky Mountain Wild. Because bats are notoriously elusive during the day, we began our search at night.
It’s dinner time!
Like clockwork, about half an hour after sun set, bats begin to flutter. Colorado’s small bats navigate by echolocation, emitting high-frequency sounds that bounce off objects. This provides amazingly precise data on an object’s size, location and speed, creating a mental 3D map of their surroundings…