Species-at-Risk
Bat Monitoring &
Habitat Restoration

Bat populations in Eastern Ontario have declined sharply in the last couple of decades for a variety of reasons including habitat loss and degradation and a disease called white-nose syndrome. Since 2014, the River Institute has been leading projects to construct and install artificial bat houses and to monitor the use of habitat by at-risk bat species. To date these projects have installed more than 200 artificial bat houses in Eastern Ontario and documented more than a dozen bat houses colonized by at-risk Little Brown Myotis, including at least 5 houses with more than 100 individuals. A project launched in 2024 is conducting monitoring to better understand the status of Little Brown Myotis and other at-risk bat species (including the Eastern Small-footed Myotis, Northern Myotis, and Tri-colored bat) in Eastern Ontario.