BEATRICE, NEB. - Within the deep woodlands of a Southeast Nebraska National Historical Park lives one of the rarest bat species in the United States.

The park knows the bat is present, and continues to gain research, thanks to a ten foot metal pole in the woods, attached to an acoustic monitoring device designed to pick up sounds of the night time forest.

“The park is home to the Northern Long Eared Bat,” Jesse Bolli said. “It’s currently on the endangered species list, mainly because of the white nose syndrome that attacks bats.”

Jesse Bolli is Natural Resources Manager for Homestead and says first research of bats in the park began in 2004, when they first found a Northern Long Eared. Researchers were able to catch the bat and hold it in hand at the park. Using the acoustic bat monitor, they were able to confirm it yet again this year with the first recording on April 6.

“The device is more or less an audio recorder attached to a microphone,” Bolli said. “It turns on 30 minutes before sunset and whenever a bat is in the area, the frequency of the bats call will trigger and cause it to start recording.”

Nebraska sits on the western edge of the bats range and Bolli says they spend most of their time under bark of trees and in tree cavities, before coming out to feed on insects after dusk. Bolli notes the fact the park continues to find the bat, means they’re doing their job.

“The fact the bat keeps coming back, we’re at least not chasing it off,” Bolli said. “We’re preserving its habitat. The mission of the park service is to protect the plants and animals and other wildlife in the park. It makes me feel like we’re doing our job."