Species at Risk work helps the environment

Englobe has conducted Species at Risk (SAR) surveys across the country, including a variety of remote and northern regions. These surveys can be requested for a variety of reasons – including creating biological inventories for environmental impact assessments and ensuring compliance with provincial and federal Species at Risk regulations.

Michaela Haring, M.Sc., P.Bio. is a Biologist working out of our Sudbury, Ontario office but she consults and collaborates on projects across Canada. She has extensive experience conducting biological field work and wildlife studies for various projects including breeding bird surveys, avian point counts, fish habitat and population assessments, baseline studies, and Species at Risk (SAR) surveys.

“The main way Species at Risk work helps the environment is by ensuring the protection of vulnerable species that may otherwise disappear unless we step in to help,” says Michaela.

Recently, our team has been tackling bat inventory studies at various Canadian Base Esquimalt Properties in coastal British Columbia. The work includes a detailed habitat assessment and bat acoustic monitoring.

Want to learn more about bats? Michaela has some facts to share.

Bats are the only flying mammal in the world.

The decline in several bat SAR has been attributed to a disease known as White-nose syndrome. The name refers to a white fungus that grows on the nose and bodies of the bat. This disease causes changes in the bats that make them become active more than usual and burn up fat they need to survive the winter.

They are insectivores and can consume their full body weight of insects in a night (which makes them great at controlling mosquitos in the summertime). If you live in the country or in an area that’s prone to moths or mosquitos, you can even buy or build a bat house to encourage them to settle and curb your insect population. Depending on the size and wall space you have available on your house or garage or barn, bat houses can hold up to 50 or even 100 bats! Bat houses are a sustainable, chemical-free way of ridding your outdoor space of pesky summer predators. (Source)