Bats in South Carolina

Hello, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. SC Department of Natural Resources has a bat specialist, Jennifer Kindel, working on many bat projects. If you visit DNR's page "Bats in South Carolina," you’ll get ideas of how you might help protect these ancient animals, first evolved over fifty million years ago. I have friends who drive their car slowly along a designated route, recording sounds of bat calls. You can also use that page to find out about white nose syndrome, which is shortening bats’ lives by making them wake up during their winter hibernation and use their stored food reserves. It’s a problem for bats all over the country, and scientists have developed a vaccine, dropped into bats' mouths, and looking for other ways to deliver it – maybe spraying their nesting spots so they’ll lick it off themselves.