South Vancouver Island

The Habitat Acquisition Trust oversees the South Vancouver Island Community Bat Program, gathering distributional information about regional bat species while assisting homeowners with coexistence, habitat enhancement, or exclusion strategies.

HAT coordinates the Annual Bat Count, conducting four counts during summer months to monitor maternity colonies, operates a bat-house program addressing habitat loss from removed wildlife trees, provides colony-exclusion consultations using humane methods, and conducts non-invasive acoustic monitoring using bat detectors. Guano samples are collected for DNA species identification in partnership with the Ministry of Environment, and colonies are mapped for ongoing surveillance.

The organization works with volunteers and residents on citizen-science initiatives focused on understanding local bat populations and White-nose Syndrome monitoring.