Cavechat.org

Hello.

I was wondering what the best way to find out about bat-related volunteer opportunities would be. I've never been able to find much online just by searching, but maybe I've never used the right terms. Can anybody point me in the right direction? Specifically for the western North Carolina region?

Thanks for any assistance/advice!

aaarg,

BCI (bat conservation international) would be your best 1st stop. 2nd would be The Nature Conservancy. After that I would contact the State of North Carolina department of natural resources and ask for their non-game or cave specialist and inquire about going along.

The simple answer is that there probably just aren't a lot of bat specific opportunities but they do come up.

aaarg wrote:Hello.

I was wondering what the best way to find out about bat-related volunteer opportunities would be. I've never been able to find much online just by searching, but maybe I've never used the right terms. Can anybody point me in the right direction? Specifically for the western North Carolina region?

Thanks for any assistance/advice!

aaarg, Your question should be answered quickly and point you in a certain direction, but unfortunately, that volunteering response has been asked about numerous times from cavers interested in helping the bats in this time of great need, without any of the researching entities redeeming the support. I can only surmise that because it would not be conductive to the funding of the necessary works currently ongoing, the response won't be forthcoming. You should continue to ask since you are here in what should be the best place for this information. Who knows, someone in the know might just post a reply to your quest.

Good Luck, and welcome to the forum!

aaarg, sorry for the late reply. Over the weekend I discovered a bat related mailing list I somehow overlooked a few years ago when I became re-interested in bats. http://www.basicallybats.org/BATLINE/ is the link to subscribe or browse the archives. (Old archives are open, past few years are restricted to subscribers only) While searching for other things noticed a few requests for volunteers and even a paid gig or two. Think one was even in the Carolina's. Came here this morning and remembered you

Oh great, thanks everybody.

I just remember assisting on a bird-banding project as a volunteer and hearing somebody talk about how they were up all night in Asheville working with bats... I was jealous.