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Whistler Naturalists Society Notice of Annual General Meeting, membership renewal & feature presentation: Bats & Biodiversity
Saturday June 9th, 2012, Legends Hotel Creekside (base of Whistler Mountain, free parking below Creekside Market)
7:00 pm: Annual General Meeting
7:30 pm: Feature presentation: Bats & Biodiversity
We hope you’ve had a chance to attend or participate in some of our activities over the past year, including:
- Our 9th Annual Fungus Among Us Mushroom Festival
- Our 5th Annual BioBlitz
- Monthly bird walks, Christmas Bird Count and Breeding Bird Survey
- NatureSpeak columns in the Pique (Contributors needed!)
- Spring nature walks
- Partnering with the Whistler Biodiversity Project & Sea to Sky Invasive Species Council
- Naturalists website: www.whistlernaturalists.ca
Our AGM presentation begins at 7:00 pm. If you’re interested in getting involved with the Whistler Naturalists please join us, we are always looking for volunteers who are interested in helping.
At 7:30 pm is our feature presentation on Bats & Biodiversity.
Bats are amazing animals for many reasons. For example, they’re the only mammal that can fly, they use echolocation to navigate, and they have the softest fur of any mammal. They’re also feared by some people because they may carry rabies and, historically, because they’ve been linked to witches and black magic (not to mention vampires).
Whistler has nine (maybe ten) species of bat, but we still don’t know much about where they forage for food or roost. Luckily for this year’s AGM, we happen to have two bat scientists finishing a week of surveys across the valley for the Whistler Biodiversity Project. They will be on hand to talk about bat ecology and what they’ve discovered in their surveys.
Weather willing (aka, no rain), there will also be an opportunity for people to join us outdoors as the scientists catch bats. The outdoor event will start approximately 9:00 but we don’t expect to actually catch any bats before 9:30 or 10:00. More updated details will be posted in the newspapers and here. For more information, please contact Bob Brett (932-8900; bob@snowlineresearch.ca).