|
|
Laura Kruger: The Bat Woman of Michigan Tech
For more information on this story contact:
Laura Kruger fell in love with bats in the perfect place.
"Half of America's 45 bat species rely on underground mines for habitat," she notes.
Kruger, who graduates this semester with a BS in Applied Ecology and Environmental Science, got her first experience studying the furry flyers in the Quincy Mine, under the direction of Professor Rolf Peterson (SFRES). With fellow undergraduate Erin Parker, she undertook basic research on the bats that hibernate there in the winter.
"Last spring, in early April, we did mist netting at the Quincy," she said. "We identified the species using the shafts to hibernate: the little brown bat, the northern myotis and the big brown bat."
They also weighed them (at only six to 12 grams, a little brown bat lives up to its name) and clipped hair samples for analysis, to gather information about their diet as well as nutritional patterns. And this fall, Kruger returned to witness a mysterious behavior called swarming, in which large clouds of bats fly around together outside of hibernation sites.
Kruger's fascination with bats began in her sophomore year. "They had just gated the Quincy shaft, and I started looking more into bats as research subjects. I got really interested; they intrigue me. They are really misunderstood."
"I think it goes back in time when bats were associated with evil myths, or the idea that they get caught in your hair. People don't know anything about them, so they're afraid. But there's nothing to be afraid of."
She and Parker have been involved in outreach work to debunk some of the bad press bats have received over the centuries, talking to Hancock High School teacher Kerry Kostemo's class and helping the students build bat houses for their class research project.
This spring, Kruger hopes to extend her research to the Caledonia Mine, in Mass City. The owner has has installed two bat gates (gates that allow bats to fly in and out of mines but block people who might disturb them) and is planning a third. About a quarter million bats are estimated to use the Caledonia Mine. "We have a unique opportunity to look at the areas the bats are using," Kruger said. "We'd go in and take a census and then monitor the mine to document any colonization."
Bats aren't the world's easiest research subject. "It's a hard animal to quantify," Kruger notes. "They are nocturnal, which makes them hard to study, and they fly, which makes it even harder."
But not hard enough for Kruger to consider another research subject. She hopes to continue her studies in graduate school, so she'll be Michigan Tech's bat woman for some time to come.
|
|
