Endangered bat discovery exciting for Native Council of P.E.I. - Action News
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PEI

Endangered bat discovery exciting for Native Council of P.E.I.

The Native Council of P.E.I. has discovered bats some endangered, some not known on the Island previously on property it is looking to turn into a wildlife preserve.

Traditional medicinal plants also found

A bat spreads its wings as it flies.
More than 90 per cent of little brown bats in the Maritimes were killed by white-nose syndrome. (Jordi Segers)

The Native Council of P.E.I. has discovered bats some endangered, some not known on the Island previously on property it is looking to turn into a wildlife preserve.

"We were excited," council president and chief Lisa Cooper told Island Morning host Mitch Cormier."We always talk about conservation, preservation, within the Indigenous community....

You lose a species, you can't bring it back- Lisa Cooper, Native Council of P.E.I.

"You lose a species, you can't bring it back."

The council used a federal grant to hirebiologist Rosemary Curley to examine the land in Victoria West anddetermine what species are on it, what species there might be at riskand how that risk might be mitigated.

She used information on plant species gathered in a survey done in cooperation with the Atlantic Canada Conservation Data Centre. As well, she examined data from the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative'sdetectors in the area that were designed to listen for the echo-location clicks of bats.

The bats are likely feeding along the waterway that runs through the property, says Rosemary Curley. (Rosemary Curley)

The project found evidence of little brown bats, which are endangered by white-nose syndrome, hoary bats and what could also be silver-haired bats or big brown bats or both.

Neither of those last two have been recorded on P.E.I. before, but they are known to breed in New Brunswick.

"There's a high diversity of bats on P.E.I. More than we ever knew about," said Curley.

"We had good luck."

Curley expects there are bat populations across P.E.I. but in low densities following the devastation of white-nose syndrome.

Woman in glasses and floral dress stands in front of a file cabinet on top of which are various pieces of Indigenous art.
The Native Council has to be cautious in its use of the land, says president and chief Lisa Cooper. (Jane Robertson/CBC)

There are also plans to see if the land is home toplantsused in Mi'kmaq traditional medicines. If there are any, Cooper said the council would like to both harvest them and use the site to educate Indigenous youth.

"We have to be cautious of what species are there so that we're not ruining their habitat, so we can increase a healthy habitat," she said.

'We had good luck,' says biologist Rosemary Curley. (Jessica Doria-Brown/CBC )

"[It's] not only about bats, but birds and plants. So it's building a strong foundation towards a community program, and we have to make sure that our foundation is knowledgeable, both with Aboriginal traditional knowledge and modern knowledge."

The council would eventually like to build a trail system on the property, but more work needs to be done to determine where those trails could go to avoid harming the environment.

More from CBC P.E.I.

Corrections

  • An earlier version of this story said biologist Rosemary Curley surveyed the land for plant species and set up detectors that listen for the echo-location clicks of bats. She clarifies that the ground work for those projects was done by two other groups: the Atlantic Canada Conservation Data Center and the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative.
    Oct 02, 2020 4:45 PM AT

With files from Island Morning