A Tale Of Two Parks And The Bats Within Them

Short Wave

NPR

Daily News, Nature, Life Sciences, Astronomy, Science, News

4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 5 August 2022

⏱️ 14 minutes

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Summary

Buckle up! Short Wave is going on a road trip every Friday this summer. In this first episode of our series on the research happening in the National Park system, we head to Shenandoah National Park and the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. Some bats there are faring better than others against white-nose syndrome, a fungus that has killed more than 7 million bats in the last decade. Today — what researchers like Jesse De La Cruz think is enabling some bat species to survive.

As we road trip, we want to hear where in the world you are too — especially if you're at a national park! To be featured in an episode, send us a recording saying your name, location and "You're listening to Short Wave — from NPR." Our email is [email protected]. We'd love to hear from you!

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:07.0	Hey nature nerds, break out your hiking shoes because we are kicking off a series of stories
0:13.6	visiting some of the country's most stunning national parks and other protected lands.
0:19.2	Think about it like a sonic summer road trip.
0:22.4	We're all going to take together to learn about some of the science happening in places
0:26.6	like Big Bend in Texas, place your peak in Washington, going to go to Hawaii, so many places
0:32.1	to go to.
0:33.4	And to start things off, we're heading to Shannon Doe a national park.
0:37.9	Shannon Doe is part of Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountain Range.
0:40.8	The highest peak in the park is just over 4,000 feet, so much smaller than its Rocky Mountain
0:45.8	or Sierra Mountain cousins.
0:47.9	But it is so full of gorgeous hikes and walks, waterfalls, animals, just beauty, breathtaking
0:55.8	beauty.
0:56.8	But Jesse Delecruz, he doesn't go there looking for the stunning vistas.
1:02.3	His research takes place at night.
1:04.5	You really do enjoy a different environment that most people don't really appreciate or
1:10.5	don't just simply get to interact with very commonly.
1:15.7	Jesse's searching for a famous denizen of the dark.
1:19.6	Are you out there with like a butterfly net jumping around chasing bats or is this spreading
1:24.5	out like a giant net across an opening and letting the bats fly into it?
1:30.5	Jesse Delecruz Yeah, yeah, so the latter is exactly
1:32.7	right.
	...

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