Volunteers sought to monitor Tucson's feeder-raiding bats

Wildlife officers and researchers are asking members of the public for help in monitoring a quirky phenomenon of the natural world: nectar-feeding bats raiding hummingbird feeders for a midnight snack.

“If your hummingbird feeders mysteriously drained during the night last summer, the midnight raiders may have been bats,” said Raul Vega, regional supervisor with the Arizona Game and Fish Department.

“Most of Arizona’s 28 bat species eat insects, but two species drink nectar and eat pollen from plants such as the saguaro and agaves. These bats are becoming common visitors to Southern Arizona hummingbird feeders in late summer and early fall.”

Information on bat visitors and photos of them gathered by volunteers will be used to help evaluate the potential effects of the unconventional feeding pattern on bat species.

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A department news release said those willing to participate in the project, conducted in partnership with the town of Marana, should contact the project’s volunteer coordinator, Emily Scobie of the Arizona Game and Fish Department at escobie@azgfd.gov

Volunteers will be asked for their name and address, cross streets only if preferred, ZIP code and the general dates bats were noticed using hummingbird feeders. They will be provided with the monitoring protocol.

Photos of bats feeding are also being sought.