Public Notices

Initial results: PCCA/CCBS Cooperative Agreements Grant to study bats in the high desert east of Bakersfield!
The PCCA (our parent organization) and the Central Coast Bat Survey (CCBS), under a three-year (2019 – 2022) grant to study bats in the high desert of Kern & Inyo counties through the California State Parks, Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation (OHMVR) Division, Grants and Cooperative Agreements Program has found a diverse but not unexpected bat cohort occupying the subject area. Our study is investigating the relationship between bat occurrence and off-highway vehicle (OHV) use on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands in the Jawbone-Butterbredt ACEC and along the eastern slope of the Southern Sierras where limited OHV use is allowed.

Even in this high-elevation desert where temperatures often fall into the 20-degree F. (-6.7 C.) range, we have found several species of bats to be active on all but the coldest nights and modest activity levels whenever temps are in the 40-degree F. (4.4 C.) and higher range. Our current species cohort of winter-detected active bats includes these species:

• Hoary Bat
• Big Brown Bat
• California Myotis
• Mexican Free-tailed Bat
• Silver-haired Bat

Note: we expect that other species (for example, Western Small-footed & Little Brown Myotis) are present but hibernating, especially at upper elevation locales.