Rocket boxes being installed around Celina’s Donaldson Park to protect Tennessee’s threatened and endangered bat species.
TWRA Biodiversity Survey Coordinator Mallory Tate Cogburn said bat boxes are artificial structures built for female bats to roost during the summer months. Tate Cogburn said bats raise their young in snags, or dead trees, because they provide a good blend of sun and shade, but those homes are not permanent.
“We’re trying to provide more available habitats,” Tate Cogburn said. “So these artificial roosts are providing that year after year in helping these females reduce some of their energy expenditures by having to continue to find alternative roosts as the snags die off and fall down.”
Tate Cogburn said rocket boxes are specifically designed to mimic the proper thermodynamics, shade, and air flow. Tate Cogburn said they can host up to 500 bats.
Tate Cogburn said bats need protection from several environmental stressors like habitat destruction and cave distrubances. Tate Cogburn said white nose syndrome is another issue bats face.
Tate Cogburn said the rocket boxes are placed in areas where there is a lot of prey. Tate Cogburn said bats feed on mosquitoes, but their primary food source is crop pest insects.
Tate Cogburn said bats provide several ecological benefits to humans. For farmers, the benefit is economic too.
“There was a study done actually putting a monetary value on bat services to humans in agriculture,” Tate Cogburn said. “That saves farmers an average of over $23 billion in pesticides. So without bats preying on our crop pests, especially in ag-heavy Tennessee, we have no crops.”
Tate Cogburn said Donaldson Park reached out to the TWRA. She said people from the park were concerned about bats, and wanted to help. The result was rocket boxes.
Tate Cogburn said Donaldson Park also educated a group of young people about bats and conservation.
“I feel like as the dynamic of young people changes, and as we just have more technology focused hobbies, we’re getting more removed from the natural world,” Tate Cogburn said. “And the natural processes that are going on around us, and natural processes that we have an impact on that are changing. And some of the things that are critical to our own survival, as humans,. Donaldson wanted to provide more opportunities for people to make that connection.”
Tate Cogburn said as Tennessee continues to develop, people should remain aware of animals and their ecological benefits. She said she encourages people to check out the bat boxes around sunset, because that is when the bats come out.
