Bat enthusiasts and curious minds are invited to enjoy an amazing late-night experience.

The BC Community Bat Program is calling for volunteers to join them in the BC Annual Bat Count, starting on Jun 1. Bat biologists and volunteers will spend late nights sitting outside counting bats at maternity roosts at sunset throughout the province, as well as counting all the bats that come out of the roost to forage for insects.

During the summer, female bats roost together and raise their young in maternity colonies. Most of the bat species in the province only have one pup per female, which is born in June and learns to fly in about three to six weeks. The males do not help in raising the young and usually roost on their own in large trees, rock cliffs, boulder fields, buildings, or barns.

Paula Rodriguez de la Vega, Okanagan coordinator for the BC Community Bat Program, says staying up all night while counting bats is an "amazing experience."

"All your senses come alive at dusk," she said. "You hear the birds quieting down, see the light disappearing and the stars starting to shine, your skin feels the coolness of the night, all the while you are focusing on one spot as you count the bats one by one."

Last year, volunteers conducted 1,089 counts at 268 roost sites around B.C. The data collected from the bat counts are crucial in helping biologists monitor bat populations and track impacts on or recovery of species. The program usually does four counts at every roost site, two in June to count the females and two more in mid-July when the pups are learning to fly.

Some public sites where bats are counted include the O香蕉视频直播橩eefe Ranch, Fintry Provincial Park, Okanagan Lake South Provincial Park, Peachland Historic School, and Sun Oka Provincial Park. Rodriguez de la Vega is thankful for so many dedicated volunteers in the Okanagan and Similkameen region but admits that more are always needed. 

"We would love to hear from anyone interested in helping," she said.

Many homeowners do their own bat counts as well, with some bat colonies living in their barns, attics or bat boxes. Partners such as The Nature Trust, Allan Brooks Nature Centre, Osoyoos Desert Society, Environmental Education Centre for the Okanagan, Bat Education and Environmental Protection Society, and the City of Penticton also help lead bat counts.

The Annual Bat Count was started in 2012 and is the only long-term monitoring program focused on bat summer roosts in the province. Bats in B.C. are key predators of various night-flying insects and are an essential part of the province's ecosystem, as they provide billions of dollars of economic benefit by helping control agricultural, forest and urban insect pests.

To find out more, report a bat colony or volunteer, visit www.bcbats.ca.