Batting an Eye
Batting an Eye
An associate professor of parks, conservation and resource management at Slippery Rock University, Davis is the co-founder of Climbers for Bat Conservation, a national organization that works with the rock-climbing community and people tasked with protecting the bat population.
“We activate climbers through citizen science to help us identify areas in cracks and crevices that could be far up cliff faces and difficult for bat biologists and land managers to reach,” Davis said. “Climbers have a unique ability and skillset to get into those areas where we could find bats that we didn’t know existed.”
Bats are under tremendous threats, from habitat loss, pesticide use and wind turbine collisions, but the most significant is a relatively new disease in North America called “white-nose syndrome.” Caused by a fungus that drains bats of their energy and water while they are hibernating, white-nose syndrome was first detected by biologists who found sick and dying bats in caves near Albany, New York, in 2007. In the next four years, an estimated 6 million bats were killed and the disease keeps spreading today. It has now been detected in 40 states.
“Biologists and conservationists will then go onto our site and see all of the different sightings,” Davis said. “If they become aware of a habitat area, they might decide to investigate and set up nets to capture, identify the species and tag them. They could potentially test for things like white-nose syndrome to see if it’s present in the bat species.”
Previous research has shown no evidence of white-nose syndrome in bats discovered in cracks and crevices on cliff faces, compared to larger colonies found in caves.
“We’re starting to build evidence and it’s way too early to say that certain bats are protected from white-nose syndrome,” Davis said. “But we’re finding that some of these bats might have protection from diseases that affect larger populations of bats. We’re really at the cusp of this new type of research.”
CBC has received funding through grants from agencies and organizations such as the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Alpine Club and the Access Fund, the latter of which advocates on behalf of the rock-climbing community toward sustainable access and conservation of the climbing environment.
“We brought climbers on board from the start,” Davis said. “We didn’t want this to be an organization that was researchers trying to capitalize off climbers’ data. We wanted climbers to be a part of it and help make decisions about how we can ensure not only conservation of bat species but also access to these climbing areas. That’s what makes our organization both effective and palatable to climbers, rather than having climbers thinking we’re just out there trying to shut down climbs and all we care about are bats.”
Both Davis and Schorr are active climbers themselves, although Davis is a climber turned bat enthusiast and Schorr started as a bat biologist who took up the sport. They help climbers see the benefit in logging bat sightings. When land managers have precise data, they are less likely to close a climbing site if they suspect a threatened bat species might be present there.
“Then if they do need to close a site, the local climbing organizations are aware of the closure and the reasons why, and there is the science to back that up, rather than just closing it for the outside chance,” Davis said. “But we don’t really know if climbing disturbs bats. There’s some evidence that climbers might actually enhance bat habitat, because climbers get rid of the vegetation on the climbing route, and certain species of bats seem to prefer less vegetation. But the overall evidence is still unclear, and the more evidence and more knowledge we have, the better.”
Davis also said that climbers can benefit from the data when choosing sites to climb or to be alert if there were sightings in a particular area before they decide to reach into a crack. Another incentive climbers receive is a free CBC T-shirt after their first submission to the site.
But people should be eager to protect bats because they are good for the environment and provide many ecological benefits including insect control. For example, one bat can eat about 1,000 mosquitos per night.
Davis is more than a rock climber turned bat enthusiast. Before attending graduate school in Colorado, he grew up in Delaware, near the Chesapeake Bay, where he worked as a U.S. Coast Guard licensed boat captain in the fields of environmental and adventure education. His doctoral work involved place-based educational strategies for communicating climate change in America’s National Parks and National Wildlife Refuges, and he specializes in environmental communication and studying people’s perceptions of climate change.
“My involvement with Climbers for Bat Conservation marries of all of my passions into one,” Davis said. “There’s the research angle and learning about bats, there’s the conservation piece and how we can protect sensitive species, and then there’s my passion for climbing and outdoor recreation. This provides opportunities for me to climb and work with climbers, which is really fun. Finally, there’s the academic piece. I love getting students involved.”
Davis joined the SRU faculty in 2016 and teaches courses in ecology and environmental education. In 2022, he received SRU’s President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. He has mentored several graduate students, either as research assistants or those who have gotten involved with CBC. Alex Witmer does both.
“It’s great having Dr. Davis as my adviser,” said Witmer, a graduate student majoring in environmental education. “I get to combine outdoor technical skills with the scientific experience for a real-world application of those two areas.”
Davis and CBC already have their sights set on growing their organization further west and throughout the National Parks System. He’ll be speaking at the Cliff Ecology Conference at Yosemite National Park later this year.
“We’ve been working with national parks and our goal is to become the face of the social science initiative for finding bats in these different areas, rather than having each park or local climbing organization gather their reports,” Davis said. “We want to be the central hub and people seem to be on board with that. We’ve also talked about having our organization not just be climbers for bat conservation, but climbers for conservation and helping preserve other plants and wildlife.”
In true superhero fashion, Davis has helped harness the powers of others for good.
“There’s a lot out there that climbers have access to that other ecologists don’t,” Davis said. “We’re helping make a difference.”