Bats of Central Coast with Bill Haas

7:00PM – 8:00PM Lecture

8:30PM – 10:00PM Walk

Bill Haas will present a lecture on Bats of California’s Central Coast. All our local bat species are insect eaters and provide beneficial pest control for agriculture and our local gardens; they also reduce biting insect populations in our neighborhoods and help reduce fire danger by devouring pest insects that harm our forest trees. Yes, there will be pretty bat photos, (maybe not so pretty) answers to your bat-related questions, and some other bat facts you might not have ever imagined! Ultimately, Bill will shine a positive light on these oft-maligned but extremely beneficial mammals (especially their role in sustainable agriculture) and discuss several techniques used to study and track these amazing animals. He will also set up a bat call viewing station near the garden center by which participants can “see” and “hear” (through the wonders of computer science) bats as they forage overhead.

The lecture will be followed by a bat walk, where participants will walk well-established trails and “listen” for bats using ultrasonic detectors and associated technologies to identify (acoustically and visually) some of the bat species that occur along the Central Coast in late spring/early summer. The terrain for the walk will be generally flat or very gently sloped. Each walk will entail less than 2 miles of walking; no more than 1 mile out and then back to our starting point.

Contact SLO Botanical Garden for more.