Topic: College of Sciences and Humanities
March 11, 2007
<b>Timothy Carter, an assistant professor of biology, discusses aspects of bat research with graduate students recently. Carter~~~s work to restore an endangered bat species has earned him national recognition.</b>
Timothy Carter, an assistant
biology professor at Ball State, was honored as the 2006 Community Partner of the Year by the Wildlife Habitat Council for his work in restoring the endangered Indiana bat population.
Carter was selected for the national honor due to his involvement with the Unimin Corporation's Tamms/Elco plant in southern Illinois, where he helped turn abandoned mines into habitats for hibernating bats.
"I have always been fascinated with the marvel that is the bat," Carter said.
Carter was one of only four community partners honored nationally by the council, which is a group of corporations and organizations that assists large companies in their efforts to protect local wildlife while working in harmony with the environment.
"At the Wildlife Habitat Council, we believe it is vital to improve approaches to the environment if our landscapes are to remain sustainable for future generations," said Robert Johnson, the council's president.
When approached by Unimin in 1998, Carter said he seized the opportunity to help the endangered bat species and to conduct research in his field of study, mammalogy.
"Our first concern was to look at the mines and determine why bats chose to live in some but not others," Carter said. "We then created an environment suitable to the bats in the Magazine Mine of Illinois, which housed zero bats in the mid '90s and is now home to 33,000 Indiana bats."
The project brought up the question whether relocating the bats to the mines was a good idea due to possible cave-ins and other hazards, he said.
Now, he is collecting data in 42 rooms of 11 mines to further determine if the mines are safe havens for bats.
Carter's work at the Tamms/Elco plant has included taking visitors to the mines, developing educational activities and working with the media, including the Chicago Tribune and Smithsonian magazine.
Much of Carter's research was undertaken while he was at Southern Illinois University. But since joining Ball State, Carter has used his work in the Unimin mines as a resource for his students, including taking them on field trips to southern Illinois to collect data and to observe the hibernating bats.
He plans to continue his summer research about how nearby human populations are impacting the bats when they come out of hibernation and travel to local forests. To study the species' well-being, the bats are caught and tagged with radio transmitters during the summer.
Carter plans to offer paid internships to Ball State students, giving them the opportunity to catch and tag the bats while studying their behavior and ecology.
By Luke Brown