{"id":5925,"date":"2023-03-22T20:08:59","date_gmt":"2023-03-22T20:08:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/?p=5925"},"modified":"2023-03-23T00:16:49","modified_gmt":"2023-03-23T00:16:49","slug":"forest-unit-conducts-a-bat-expedition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/2023\/03\/22\/forest-unit-conducts-a-bat-expedition\/","title":{"rendered":"Forest Unit conducts a Bat Expedition\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On Monday 20<\/span><\/span>th<\/span><\/span>\u00a0the Forestry Unit\u00a0<\/span>within the\u00a0<\/span>Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with the Ministry of Education held a \u201c<\/span><\/span>BAT EXPEDITION<\/span><\/strong>\u201d<\/span><\/span>. \u00a0<\/span>A group of educators\u00a0<\/span>comprised<\/span>\u00a0of education officers, primary and secondary teachers\u00a0<\/span>led by forestry officers paid a visit to\u00a0<\/span>one of the caves found in the eastern side of Antigua<\/span>. \u00a0<\/span>This was at leas<\/span><\/span>t<\/span><\/span>\u00a0forty-five minutes to an hour hike through\u00a0<\/span>one of the island\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>D<\/span>ry\u00a0<\/span>F<\/span>orest<\/span>. \u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This part of the hike was led by Adriel Thibou, Senior Forestry Officer<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>and Brent Simon,\u00a0<\/span>Forestry\u00a0<\/span>Ranger<\/span>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>The expedition was conducted very\u00a0<\/span>cautiously as it was explained that the surrounding ecosystem must have minimal interference as possible<\/span>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u201cStrive at all\u00a0<\/span>cost<\/span>s<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>through\u00a0<\/span>whatever means to do little\u00a0<\/span>to<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>no harm to the ecosystems, thus leaving it as nature intended\u201d Thibou said.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>While inside the\u00a0<\/span>cave<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>still\u00a0<\/span>under the guidance of\u00a0<\/span>Adriel\u00a0<\/span>Thibou<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0three bats were caught and\u00a0<\/span>taken<\/span>\u00a0outside for\u00a0<\/span>processing that included the collection of each bat Biomatrices and fur, for\u00a0<\/span>the\u00a0<\/span>Mercury<\/span>\u00a0monitoring project.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Forestry Trainee<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>Jameel Ambrose,<\/span>\u00a0was\u00a0<\/span>charged with the task\u00a0<\/span>of guiding<\/span>\u00a0a small group of observers deeper into the cave.<\/span>\u00a0It must be\u00a0<\/span>emphasi<\/span>z<\/span>ed the\u00a0<\/span>Spelunking<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>can be<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>extremely dangerous<\/span>\u00a0and should not be\u00a0<\/span>attem<\/span>p<\/span>ted<\/span>\u00a0with proper supervision<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Mrs.\u00a0<\/span>Camellia\u00a0<\/span>Tonge<\/span>, Forestry\u00a0<\/span>Assistant<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0explained to the group why bats were so\u00a0<\/span>importa<\/span>nt<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0and th<\/span>e importance of the data collected<\/span>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u201cThe<\/span>\u00a0da<\/span>ta collected today will be entered into our database and a comparison\u00a0<\/span>c<\/span>ould<\/span>\u00a0be\u00a0<\/span>made<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>to what we have already colle<\/span>cte<\/span>d<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>T<\/span>his<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>is<\/span>\u00a0done<\/span>\u00a0to\u00a0<\/span>m<\/span>on<\/span>itor<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>change<\/span>s in the roost site and the resident population and helps to guide our management\u00a0<\/span>practices.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The bat\u00a0<\/span>species were identified\u00a0<\/span>as<\/span>\u00a0\u201c<\/span><\/span>Natalus<\/span><\/span>stramineus<\/span><\/span>\u201d or\u00a0<\/span>the Mexican-Antillean Funnel Eared Bats<\/span>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>They are very unusual because of the\u00a0<\/span>colour<\/span>\u00a0of their furs which range from a pale yellow to an orangish gray based on the age of the mammals<\/span>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>For more information on our \u201c<\/span><\/span>Chiroptera<\/span><\/span>\u201d friends please contact the Forestry Unit via 764-1272<\/span>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \u00a0\"\" \u00a0<\/a>\"\" \u00a0<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"\"<\/a> \u00a0 \u00a0\"\"<\/a> \u00a0 \"\" <\/a>\u00a0 \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"\u00a0\u00a0<\/a> \"\"\u00a0\u00a0<\/a> \"\"\u00a0\u00a0<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a> \u00a0 \"\"<\/a> \u00a0 \"\"\u00a0<\/a> \u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Monday 20th\u00a0the Forestry Unit\u00a0within the\u00a0Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with the Ministry of Education held a \u201cBAT EXPEDITION\u201d. \u00a0A group of educators\u00a0comprised\u00a0of education officers, primary and secondary teachers\u00a0led by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-notices"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5925"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5958,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5925\/revisions\/5958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}