Winter Lyceum: All about Bats, Mines & Old Homes

Join Bat Specialist from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Jennifer Redell on a journey of historic homes and mines and why they are often home to bats and hibernation zones.

Did you know that bats are more closely related to primates than rodents!? The 1400 documented species of bats make up nearly 25% of earth’s mammal diversity! Join Wisconsin DNR Bat biologist and Cave & mine specialist Jennifer Redell for an engaging presentation about the importance and intrigue of your neighborhood bats. She’ll share how Mineral Point’s historic mines provide not only a critical haven for bats but how they also pose a threat to their health.

White-nose Syndrome is a disease that has led to precipitous bat population declines in North America; since 2010 important research to understand and treat the disease has been playing out underneath the Mineral Point area. Jennifer will also lead you on a photographic tour under the Mineral Point area, illuminating the spaces miners left behind.

More about Jennifer:
Not only a dedicated Bat Biologist, Jennifer Redell is also the adventurous Cave & Mine Specialist at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR). She can often be found crawling through muddy caves, paddling water-filled mines, or rappelling into dark crevices in search of Wisconsin’s threatened cave bat population. Redell and her colleagues work statewide to monitor and assess bat population trends through acoustic surveys, hibernacula surveys, and summer roost monitoring. Since 2009 the Wisconsin DNR’s Bat Program has collaborated with researchers across North America to wage a critical battle with White-nose Syndrome (WNS), a fungal disease devastating hibernating bat populations.