If you own, use or manage a swimming pool, Indiana State's bat research center needs your help

Jun 16, 2014 Indiana State student Zachary Nickerson holds a bat while doing research in the field.

As spring turns to summer, many of us enjoy the longer days by lingering on our back porches or sitting by the pool.

It's the latter on which researchers at the Center for Bat Research, Outreach, and Conservation at Indiana State University are focusing. They would like the public's help in understanding how bats use swimming pools.

A nationwide survey is now available online, so if you own, use or manage a swimming pool, you can provide valuable information. Even if you have never seen a bat near your pool, that's important, researchers say.

Anecdotal reports suggest bats use swimming pools for drinking, perhaps especially in areas where natural water sources are scarce, said student researcher Zachary Nickerson, a junior from Columbus, Ind.

"Bats drink water in-flight, so they come down, take a drink and fly out all in one motion. They can't land and drink and take off again. So if there's an obstruction in the way or the pool is too small or something goes wrong, they can get trapped in the pool and die," Nickerson said.

To participate in the voluntary survey, go to batsandpools.wordpress.com .

This is the second year for the research project, which started after Joy O'Keefe, assistant professor of biology at Indiana State and director of the Bat Center, started hearing reports about dead bats being found in swimming pools. O'Keefe confirmed these anecdotes with a colleague in Texas and decided research was needed to determine if the phenomena was widespread.

Last year, 78 percent of the nearly 400 respondents reported seeing bats near their pools; 13 percent reported drowned bats.

"We're definitely finding what we were expecting to find," said Nickerson, who is double majoring in biology and chemistry. "With 300-plus (respondents), we got good data and good spatial distribution, but we need more to make the conclusions concrete."

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If you own, use or manage a swimming pool, Indiana State's bat research center needs your help