In the U.S., more than half of the bat species forage adjacent to waterways. Bats are also long-lived (up to 30 years for some) and have the potential to accumulate high levels of toxins over time.

Below is a selection of some representative mammal contaminants research projects:

• Evaluating spatial and temporal patterns of mercury exposure in northeast U.S. bat populations
• Evaluating spatial and temporal patterns of mercury exposure in northeast U.S. mink and otter populations
• Developing mercury lowest adverse effect levels (LOAEL) for U.S. bat populations
• Penobscot River mercury study: mercury assessment in bats along the Penobscot River and comparison regions in Maine
• Assessing bat, furbearer, and small mammal Hg profiles for Natural Resource Damage Assessments (NRDA) with USFWS, EPA, and various state agencies 
• Examining bat mercury trends at Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Virginia 
• Penobscot River mercury study: mercury assessment in harbor and gray seals along the Penobscot River and comparison regions in Maine and Massachusetts
• Peru mercury study examining mercury for gold mining using Giant River and Neotropical River otters as indicator species

Publications:

• "Mercury in bats from the northeastern United States," Ecotoxicology (2013)

Efforts to study the movements of mammals help us learn critical information about their behavior and ecology. Marking bats with unique wing bands is one of the most long-standing methods of studying bats. Traditional bands help us identify the banding origin of bats that are recovered or recaptured elsewhere.

Bats fitted with traditional radio transmitters are typically tracked within a relatively close range (several miles) by plane, vehicle, or on foot using a receiver. To date, BRI researchers have tracked a variety of bats including little brown, northern long-eared, Indiana, tri-color, big brown, gray, and eastern small-footed bats. Tracking these individual bats provides remarkable information that is valuable in a wide spectrum of research, management, conservation, and legislative decisions.

Below is a selection of some representative mammal tracking projects:

• Home range study of little brown and tri-color bats on a river in Virginia
• Home range study of northern long-eared and eastern small-footed bats at Great Bay National Wildlife Refuge
• Examining muskrat movements and populations on a fluctuating reservoir in Downeast Maine
• Home range movements of otter, mink, beaver, and muskrat on a fluctuating reservoir in western Maine
• Tracking Indiana bats to day roosts and performing exit counts
• Tracking eastern small-footed bats to rock roosts at Acadia National Park
• Identifying Late Summer Activities and Habitat Preferences of Remnant Populations of Myotis Bats in Acadia National Park

Habitat loss and fragmentation cause a variety of ecological impacts that trigger different responses in different mammal species. Conducting surveys or monitoring populations shows trends in species populations. Depending on the objective of the study, we use a variety of methods to survey and inventory a species. These inventories are important to understand how the mammals we study utilize the landscape we share with them.

Below is a selection of some representative mammal survey and monitoring research projects:

• Bat survey of Parker River and Great Bay National Wildlife Refuges 
• Understanding bat migration in coastal Massachusetts (working with Parker River and Great Bay National Wildlife Refuges)
• Ecoregion survey to determine rare bat and small mammal species in Maine
• Characterizing bird and bat migration in the Thousand Islands region of New York State (with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service).
• Gas pipeline surveys for endangered Indiana bats in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio
• Rare mammal inventory along the Appalachian Trail in Maine for the National Park Service
• Acoustic monitoring of bats at various National Parks, National Wildlife Refuges, and various states for inventory purposes
• Community structure of bats at Acadia National Park
• Museum query for historical coastal bat occurences