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A fly-by-night fascination.

Article Excerpt
Byline: Scott Maben The Register-Guard

Hissing and clicking, the bat sinks its teeth into Shonene Scott's skin.

The Portland State University graduate student barely notices. Besides, she's had her pre-exposure rabies vaccination.

"I usually let them just gnaw away on my hand," Scott said. "It doesn't break the skin, and I guess I deserve it."

But it makes it difficult to examine the tiny mammal, so she blows on its furry head to distract it. The bat lets go, and Scott continues taking its measurements as a group of observers crowd around in the dark woods north of Springfield.

They might have been mistaken for an "X-Files"-like satanic cult huddled under the stars if not for the high-tech gadgetry and scientific purpose of the late-night outing, a highlight of a bat conservation workshop this week in Eugene.

More than 50 wildlife biologists and forest managers from the Northwest convened to learn how bats use forest habitat, such as roosting in clusters under the bark of big trees. They also got to see the latest advances in acoustical monitoring and other technology to detect and identify bats.

The meeting, sponsored by Bat Conservation International of Austin, Texas, also gave bat experts the chance to cast the elusive and often feared mammal in a positive light.

"Bats are more often misunderstood than understood, even in the world of biology," said Pat Ormsbee, Eugene-based bat specialist for the Pacific Northwest region of the U.S. Forest Service. "They are not all that...

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