Bat scientists and researchers from U.S. Fish & Wildlife and the Missouri Department of Conservation are at Sodalis Nature Preserve conducting a bat migration study.

Lead wildlife biologists from USFS, Vona Kuczynska said the crew will temporarily capture the bats in a mist net and then attach miniature radio transmitters to the bats to track them with a telemetry-equipped airplane and ground vehicles.

The biologists will be setting up a mist nest or harp trap outside of a few gates at Sodalis Nature Preserve. Unlike normal nets, a harp trap doesn’t tangle bats in the webbing. To pass through obstacles, bats turn their bodies perpendicular, but in the case of a harp trap’s strings they can’t perform that delicate maneuver and maintain their angle of flight. The trap forces them to drop into a collection chamber below.