University of New Hampshire
McNair Scholar, 2025
Major: Wildlife Conservation & Biology
Mentor: Dr. Laura Kloepper
Research Title: Impacts of Artificial Light at Night on New Hampshire Bat Foraging Activity
Abstract:
As the human population continues to rise, so do the effects of urbanization. Urbanization has many negative effects on ecological resources, which can negatively affect the wildlife populations surrounding the urban areas. Urbanization causes many types of pollution, which can negatively impact surrounding ecosystems. This study focuses on the effect of Artificial Light at Night (ALAN) on the foraging habits of little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) and big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus). This study will look at the number of foraging attempts, terminal buzzes, made by bats across six sites on a college campus in southeastern New Hampshire (USA), that will test how many foraging attempts bats make across a light gradient. The predicted outcome of this study is that the two species will have different reactions to the varying levels of artificial lighting, with the little brown bats most likely not being found at the part of the site nearest the light, and the big brown bats will most likely have a more even distribution across the gradient. The outcome of this study should provide information that could help to create better conservation planning when implementing artificial lighting in urban areas with bat populations.
