The Bat Doctor participates in Montgomery County Conservation Day 2010

Over 200 area fifth graders from across Montgomery County attended a Conservation Day at the University of Illinois Extension office in Hillsboro on Friday, May 14th, 2010. Students from Hillsboro, Witt, Nokomis, St. Louis Catholic, Raymond, Farmersville, and Zion Lutheran schools were all in attendance to participate in a variety of activities. Various stations were set up for the students.

The presenters of each station were as follows: Melissa Cauble, Montgomery County Soil and Water Conservation District; Duane Friend, University of Illinois Extension, Stream table; Bill Million, University of Illinois Extension, Conservation Jeopardy; Peggy Hampton, University of Illinois Extension, GPS (Global Position Systems), Dr. Todd Austin, The Bat Doctor, IL Bats/Bat houses; Gary Letterly, University of Illinois Extension, Miscanthus grass/Biofuels; Amanda Cole, University of Illinois Extension, and Bob Milligan, former Ag teacher, Tree Chain Game; Jenny Rossi, Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, Recycle Dash; Don Pflederer, Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Minerals trailer; Dave Shiley, University of Illinois Extension, Aquatics; Charlie Peterson, State 4-H Electric Committee member and Bronson Borowiak, MJM, Energy Conservation; C.J. Liddell, Montgomery County Natural Resource Conservation Service, Soil Erosion table, Stephanie Porter, University of Illinois Extension, Eviroscape/Watersheds; Charles Williams, Illinois Petroleum Resources Board (IRPB), Petroleum trailer; Charlotte Shuricht, Montgomery County Ag Literacy Coordinator, Insects; Kris Reynolds, Montgomery County Soil and Water Conservation District, Tree Identification.

Students participated in the day-long event and were also provided with a packet of related materials. Funding assistance for the Montgomery County 5th Grade Conservation Day was provided by the W. Darrell Kilton Foundation Grant. For more information about the Montgomery County 5th Grade Conservation Day, please contact the Montgomery County Extension office at 217-532-3941.

Dr. Austin's IL bat presentations were recently featured in 'BATS' magazine!

Dr. Austin (a.k.a. "The Bat Doctor") was recently featured in the most recent edition of 'BATS' magazine.  BATS is an international publication devoted to bat conservation and education.  It is published by Bat Conservation International.  Austin's bat presentation work was just featured (in the Spring 2010 issue) for the third time, although both previous mentions were much smaller.  The current mention received a full page.

Robert Locke, editor of the magazine, felt that featuring "The Bat Doctor's" bat outreach efforts would be a good way to spur on other bat enthusiasts to get out there in the trenches and start giving bat talks as well.

Here is a pic of The Bat Doctor and his oldest daughter (aka "The Bat Girl") displaying the most recent issue of BATS magazine in front of their 'Wall of Bats'. The issue featured a full page article about Dr. Austin's bat outreach efforts. His daughter & 4 of her classmates were with Austin in the photo that appeared with the article.

A nice review about a recent IL bat presentation that I wanted to pass along!

I thoroughly enjoyed giving a bat presentation entitled "IL BATS: Insect Eating Machines" last week in beautiful Catlin Park in Ottawa, IL.  I just received the review below via e-mail from a nice lady who was instrumental in planning and putting on the recent LaSalle County, IL Eco Meet.  I just wanted to pass it along.

Photo caption: Dr. Todd Austin (a.k.a. "The Bat Doctor") displays a bat photo of 2 big brown bats that he worked with in the past, while standing next to the Eco Meet banners prior to his bat presentation at the successful 16th annual LaSalle County event on 5-6-10.


Dr. Austin,

Thank you for presenting such a fascinating program for our Eco Meet. Your carefully chosen words were certainly at an appropriate level for the students. Your facts were awesome! I think everyone who heard your program will remember some "bat facts" and hopefully share a concern for conservation of the "furry little winged ones". I enjoyed meeting you. I wish you great success in the forthcoming years.

-Kathy H.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Mississippi Valley Region
Ottawa, IL

"The Bat Doctor" Gives Bat Presentation at LaSalle County Eco Meet 2010

On Thursday 5-6-10, I was the special guest speaker at the 16th Annual LaSalle County Eco Meet, which was held at Catlin Park in Ottawa, IL. LaSalle County junior and senior high students competed as individuals and teams in five different science categories including bats. This is the first year in the history of the event that ‘bats’ has been an Eco Meet topic. I've been an active member of Bat Conservation International (BCI) for nearly 20 years.

I educated the 48 LaSalle County junior and senior high Eco Meet participants and 22 event coordinators and volunteers with my 30-minute bat presentation called “IL Bats: Insect Eating Machines”. I brought along a dozen framed 8”x10” bat photos from my years of volunteer work with bats, a single chamber bat house and a small jar of bat guano.

The main points covered were how Big Brown Bats, Red Bats, Hoary Bats and Little Brown Bats help humans by eating so many cucumber beetles, cut worm moths, leafhoppers, and mosquitoes respectively. I also touched on some conservation concerns including White-nose Syndrome, bat kills by wind turbines and loss of habitat for both endangered Indiana and Gray Bats.

I  then talked about four ways we can all help out bats by: 1) Never disturbing bats in their natural habitat. 2) Putting up a bat house to provide an artificial roost for bats. 3) Helping bats by joining BCI for as little as $30/year. 4) Sharing with others the truth about how bats are incredibly beneficial to humans!

While I enjoy speaking to audiences of all ages, young people are our planet’s future ambassadors. A little bit of education at an early age can go a long way toward changing preconceived negative attitudes about these extremely important and highly beneficial insect eating machines!

As Virden’s ‘Bat Doctor’, I also distributed approximately 40 sets of BCI brochures, bat house blueprints, tips on attracting bats and recent back-issues of BATS magazine.

Photo Caption:  Me standing behind the stuffed bat display that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was able to borrow from the IL State Museum in Springfield. The student participants used this to learn the bats different sizes and characteristics from species to species. 9 of our state's 12 bats were represented here.

How to Safely Remove a Bat from your Home!

IL bat removal:  Here's a link to my YouTube video about "How to Safely Remove an Unwanted Bat from your Home".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jE3-YN03u8

Many thanks to my supporting actor: 'Trouble' the adult male Big Brown Bat (E. fuscus).

"The Bat Doctor" speaks about 'IL BATS' at 'Earth Stewardship Day 2010'

On Tuesday May 4, 2010, I had the opportunity to teach 135 Sangamon County, IL 4th grade students as well as 25 adults (teachers and parents) about bats. A Doctor of Chiropractic from Virden, IL, I've been an active member of Bat Conservation International (BCI) for nearly 20 years. I was blessed to be one of 35 speakers at this years’ annual Earth Stewardship Day event. This was an outdoor event put on by the IL EPA and held at the State Fairgrounds in Springfield, IL. All in all, I gave 6 separate talks with an average of 23 children per session.

I'm currently a member of the Montgomery County Toastmasters Club.  I educated these 4th graders with my 25-minute presentation called “How to Become a Bat Ambassador”. I brought along 12 framed 8”x10” bat photos (from my own volunteer work with bats over the years) along with a small jar of bat guano from a big brown bat and a single chamber bat house.

The main points covered were how Big Brown Bats and Red Bats both help farmers by eating so many cucumber beetles and cut worm moths, and how Little Brown Bats help us all by eating so many mosquitoes, thus decreasing our risk of getting West Nile Virus. I then taught kids 4 ways to help out bats: 1) Never disturb bats in their natural habitat. 2) Put up a bat house to provide an artificial roost for bats. 3) Help bats by helping BCI through the Adopt-a-Bat program. 4) Share with other people about how bats are beneficial to us all!

The kids really enjoyed the bat photos. They especially liked the story that went along with the picture of Trouble, the big brown bat. A man from Springfield found ‘Trouble’ on his shower curtain one morning. Most boys said that wouldn’t scare them, while most girls said it would surely frighten them!  And the boys were really fascinated with the jar of bat guano, while the girls thought it was gross!.

While I enjoy speaking to audiences of all ages, children are our planet’s future ambassadors. A little bit of education at an early age can go a long way toward changing preconceived negative attitudes about these extremely important and highly beneficial flying mammals. The unfortunate truth is that with White Nose Syndrome now in our neighboring state, Missouri, when these kids grow up, there might not even be any bats left in IL. We all need to act now to save our bats!

I also left bat rings, bat tattoos as well as ‘Important Bat Fact’ cards for every Sangamon County 4th grader that I educated.

Photo 1 caption: Me (aka The Bat Doctor) with Mrs. Pearce’s 4th grade class from Auburn Elementary School on 5-4-10 at the IL EPA’s Earth Stewardship Day 2010.

Photo 2 caption: Yours truly with Mrs. Kluemke’s 4th grade class from Sherman Elementary School.

"The Bat Doctor" releases a Big Brown Bat back into the wild in March 2010

It is technically illegal to both 'rescue' and 'rehab' bats in the state of IL, due to the IL Dept of Public Health and their ill-willed stances that "most bat have the Rabies virus" and "the only good bat is a dead bat".

This is unfortunate for IL bats and IL citizens, especially in light of the spread of White-Nose Syndrome (WNS) to the Midwestern U.S.  WNS has killed over 1 million insect-eating bats so far in the U.S.

Therefore, it is my opinion that every single one of our bats is important and truly makes a difference.  Fortunately, Public Health Departments in 4 of IL's neighboring states (IA, IN, MO & WI) must have more sense than my state's lack of sense, as these states all have bat-friendly laws.  Yes, it is actually perfectly legal to "help" bats in these states.  Woo Hoo!!! 

Fortunately I have friends and acquaintances that are bat rehabilitators in each of these states.  And in March 2010, I was truly blessed to perform an out-of-state act that would have been regarded as highly illegal in the un(bat)friendly confines of IL....yes, yours truly released an overwintered Big Brown Bat (E. fuscus) back into the wild.  This is always such an awesome experience!  I placed the bat on a tree and waved bye as it flew off to join it's colony.

Success!!!

Here's a video of an adorable orphaned Red Bat pup.

Me & Mrs. Bat Doctor are glad to have met Lucy last summer. This sweet little gal has since been released back into the wild. She should be consuming about 100 cutworm moths per night now. Terrific news for farmers!!!

Enjoy the video!

Welcome to the blog of "The Bat Doctor"!

I'm a professional bat lecturer and veteran BCI (Bat Conservation International) member. I try to spread the word every chance I get about how great bats are for mankind.

My work as a volunteer conductor on the underground railroad for displaced Central IL bats has allowed me to take a plethora of great bat pics over the years too. BTW, in case you were wondering, I've never met a bat that was ugly!

I count my blessings daily for the occasional instances where I get to work with and learn from these fascinating furry flyers.

Follow my bat-related exploits on Facebook at:

www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Virden-IL/The-Bat-Doctor/291958052992?ref=ts

Yours in bat conservation,

Dr. Todd W. Austin