Enjoy Bat Encounters in the Okanagan
Enjoy the Battiness
The dry interior of BC doesn’t just have wine, it also has the highest diversity of bats in all of Canada. It is a paradise for nature lovers who seek out amazing wildlife encounters after dark. All 14 bat species in the Okanagan eat insects and are affectionately called ‘swallows of the night’ by nature enthusiasts. Their diet includes insects like mosquitoes and agricultural and forestry pests. They provide Canadians with millions of dollars in natural pest control services.
Hibernating Bat - Photo by Eduard Kyslynskyy
Bats are found in natural and urban areas near lakes, ponds, and wetlands throughout the Okanagan. They are amongst our most common wildlife.
While visiting the Okanagan, be sure to visit the lakeshore during the first hour after the sun sets, on warm evenings, and look for bats. Bats drink while in flight by dipping close to the water. It’s one of the first things they do when they wake up at the end of the day.
Photo by Destination BC/Joann Pai
Photo by Indigenous Tourism BC / Indian Grover Riding Stables
In Canada, there are two bat species that are only found in the dry interior of BC. The Spotted bat which is unique, with black and white fur and enormous ears. It is among the rarest bats in arid regions and uses echolocation calls (a form of sonar) that are audible to humans. The Pallid bat, which in Canada is only found in the South Okanagan, eats small insects while flying and often large prey such as scorpions. They appear to be immune to the venom of their prey.
Pallid Bat
Spotted Bat, Photo by Merlin Tuttle©
Along with observing bats along lake and river shorelines, if you are interested in bats and want to learn more about them during your time in Okanagan, visit the Peachland Visitor Centre. The centre is home to a maternity roost of almost 2000 Little Brown Myotis and Yuma bats. Most evenings from June to August, you can participate in a bat count, watching bats emerge from their roost in the attic and counting them as they emerge.
Other batty activities visitors and locals can enjoy are:
Peachland Historic School - Visit the visitor centre to learn about bats. Take a walk along the Bat House Interpretive Trail. See the bat colony via webcams. Count bats as they emerge from the attic roost in the evening. Participate in their summer programs.
Kelowna’s Environmental Education Centre - Located at Mission Creek Regional Park, visit the ‘Bats: Out of the Darkness’ exhibit until mid-July. Sign out a discovery bat pack while there.
Osoyoos Desert Centre - Visit the centre to learn about bats that are unique to the desert.
Vernon’s Allan Brooks Nature Centre - Visit the nature centre to learn about bats. Participate in a summer bat talk and a bat count.
Contact the BC Community Bat Program (www.bcbats.ca) for information on bat counts occurring at SunOka Provincial Park, Okanagan Lake South Provincial Park, and Fintry Provincial Park.
Ask your resort/hotel if they have a bat roost on their property where you can see bats. Remember that bats are wild animals. Keep your distance and never touch a bat. It is illegal to harass or kill a bat in BC.
Participate in Annual Bat Counts (June - August). This involves sitting outside a bat roost and counting bats as they come out for the evening to hunt insects. Learn more at Counting bats - BC BATS
Osoyoos Desert Centre, Photo by Destination BC/Hubert Kang
Allan Brooks Nature Centre in Vernon
Unfortunately, bats are in trouble, and half of our bat species are listed as ‘at risk’. The majority of BC bats give birth to only one pup per year, and only about half of those young make it through their first winter. All kinds of things affect bats, including habitat loss, wind turbines, persecution by people, and susceptibility to White-Nose syndrome (WNS). WNS is a deadly disease caused by an introduced fungus that decimates bat populations.
Bats are an essential component of our healthy Okanagan ecosystems and provide important control of agriculture and forest insect pests and a natural method of control of mosquito populations. Visitors can help bats by learning more about them and supporting bat conservation. Learn about what to do if you have found a bat by visiting the Bat World Sanctuary resource.
Take the 7 Affrimations for 7 Generations Thompson Okanagan Regional Pledge to commit to caring for the land, animals, like bats, and communities of this region to ensure they continue to be prosperous for generations to come.
BC Community Bat Program (BCCBP)
The BC Community Bat Program is a network of community bat projects across BC, carried out in partnership with the Ministry of Environment. In the Okanagan region, we work with landowners to protect their bat roost sites and use bat-friendly exclusion methods, document the number of known roost sites in human-made structures, promote citizen science such as bat counts to monitor bat populations and White-nose Syndrome surveillance at active bat roosts, train Bat Ambassadors, and work with many partners towards implementation of Bat-friendly Communities.
