Big Brown Bat © Ethan Borland
Congratulations to Ethan Borland for winning the June 2019 Vermont Atlas of Life iNaturalist photo-observation of the month. Ethan’s fantastic photo of a Big Brown Bat bearing down on a mayfly snack received the most ‘faves’ of any observation submitted to the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist. What this bat was doing flying around in broad daylight, besides snacking of course, is anyone’s guess!
With over 11,700 photo-observations submitted by over 720 observers in June, it was competitive. Click on the image to visit the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist and explore more.
Big Brown Bats, and all of Vermont’s other bat species, are notoriously difficult to see and photograph, making this observation an exceptional documentation of bat behavior. A close relative of the Big Brown Bat, the Little Brown Bat, has been experiencing precipitous declines in recent years due to the presence of White Nose Syndrome in hibernacula across the northeast. To learn more about bat declines and monitoring, check out this episode of outdoor radio!
Visit the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist where you can vote for the winner this month by clicking the ‘fav’ star on your favorite photo-observation. Make sure you get outdoors and record the biodiversity around you, then submit your discoveries and you could be a winner!
