WildCare Foundation: What's New

WildCare Begins Collaborative Effort with Natural History Museum
by Carol Bunyard

Recently, WildCare and the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History teamed up to update data on the distribution of various bat species in Oklahoma. The collaborative effort came about in August, when an injured eastern pipistrelle (Pipistrellus subflavus) was found beneath the stadium on the University of Oklahoma campus. A search of the SNOMNH data base showed no record of eastern pipistrelles in Cleveland County, so we contacted the museum to share our information. Dr. Janet K. Braun, Curator II of Mammals, was delighted with the information and welcomed any additional data that we could supply.

Our bat intake data for the years 2000 through September of 2003 were submitted to Dr. Braun. These records provided news of eight firsts for Oklahoma counties:

Mexican free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis mexicanus): Oklahoma County
Eastern Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus subflavus): Cleveland County
Evening bats (Nycticeius humeralis): Cleveland Countya
Caddo County
Red bats (Lasiurus borealis): Canadian County
Garvin County
Pottawatomie County

The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History plans to archive the data so that it can be accessed by both researchers and the general public. New data will be submitted twice per year.

We hope to soon establish a similar exchange of data regarding other animals received by WildCare.

It is exciting to know that not only are we positively affecting the ecological balance of Oklahoma's wildlife through our efforts, we are now also assisting the scientific community in expanding our knowledge and understanding of these wonderful creatures.