Bats are a critical part of the Midwest ecosystem by providing valuable pest control through their nighttime consumption of insects. In Illinois we have 13 bat species, but only nine species are found in the majority of the state.  Bats that may be found in northern Illinois include: Big Brown bat - Silver-Haired bat - Eastern Red bat - Hoary bat - Little Brown bat -Northern Long-eared bat - Endangered Indiana bat - Evening bat - Tri-colored bat.

 

We partnered with Illinois Audubon Society to survey Gremel Nature Preserve, Amboy Marsh Nature Preserve, and the Queen of the Prairie site using acoustics to identify bat species at these properties. We collected acoustic data for 20 nights, resulting in 117,197 audio files. 

During the survey period, activity was variable by night.

 

Kaleidoscope and Sonobat data showed that the following six bat species were present at the Green River Lowlands sites - Big brown, Eastern red, Hoary, Indiana, Evening and Tricolored bat . Big brown bats were the most commonly recorded species. Bat activity was highest at Gremel Nature Preserve.

 

There was high activity of species of concern (Myotis and tricolored bats) at the Queen of the Prairie site.  Manual review by
Tara Hohoff confirmed presence of the northern long-eared bat and the little brown bat at the Queen of the Prairie site. Although both Kaleidoscope and Sonobat showed there  that the Indiana bat was present at this site , we could not find a distinctive call from this
species to manually confirm.

The complete survey is available by request.

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https://wildlifeillinois.org/identify-wildlife/bats/