More treat than trick: Endangered Florida bonneted bats found at FGCU
7 – minute read
When Halloween rolls around, bats usually play the villain. Due to their associations with vampires and disease, they’re often seen as something to fear. But according to one Florida Gulf Coast University student researcher, the truth is far more exciting.
Among the bats typically flitting across campus after dark is one of the rarest mammals in Florida.
“My heart started pounding when I recognized the call frequency of the bonneted bat, as they have a very unique call frequency and pattern compared to the rest of the Florida bat species,” says Allison Goodwin, an environmental studies student, who first heard the call in 2025.
She later verified her identification through software analysis of the recording she made of the call, and she detected additional bonneted bat calls nearby. Armed with acoustic monitoring equipment and a passion for wildlife conservation, Goodwin has spent months eavesdropping on Southwest Florida’s nocturnal residents. What she discovered was remarkable: evidence that the endangered Florida bonneted bat regularly hangs out at the Nest.
“We have an endangered species of bat utilizing campus,” she says. “I have enough data across campus to confirm that bonneted bats consistently used FGCU as a foraging ground, with above a 95% confirmation.”
A model Gulf Scholar
The Florida bonneted bat is the state’s only endemic bat species, meaning it is found nowhere else in the world.
For Goodwin, it was a thrilling payoff to months of research and a reminder that some of Southwest Florida’s most important wildlife goes unnoticed in the darkness overhead.
Her work is part of a larger effort to understand and protect Gulf Coast ecosystems. Goodwin is a member of FGCU’s first cohort of Gulf Scholars, a program supported by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine and funded through settlement dollars from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
The initiative prepares undergraduates to address pressing issues of resilience through research and experiential learning along the Gulf Coast. FGCU joined the program as part of the fourth national cohort and began the planning phase of its five‑year participation in 2024.
“The program provides an academic and student-engagement structure for FGCU’s long-standing identity around environmental sustainability. Allison’s work on FGCU’s campus seeks to provide a template that can be adapted in other spaces across the region,” says Melodie Eichbauer, a history professor specializing in legal history and co-director of the FGCU Gulf Scholars Program.
“She exemplifies who we want Gulf Scholars to become,” Eichbauer says.
Goodwin’s conservation work extends beyond campus. Since May, she has served as an ecology intern with EarthBalance, a South Florida environmental consulting firm, where she assists with ecosystem monitoring, wildlife surveys, species relocation and regulatory reporting. The experience has given her hands-on training in identifying potential bat roosting sites and conducting surveys along U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service guidelines. Following her graduation in December, she will join the company as a full-time ecologist.
For Goodwin, the discovery of bonneted bats at FGCU has become an opportunity not only to study a rare species but also challenge common misconceptions about them.
Not just creatures of the night
Bats are often blamed for spreading disease, but Goodwin says much of that fear is exaggerated.
“Many people don’t realize that of the billions of bats that occupy the world, only about 1% of them actually carry the rabies disease,” which is the main direct-contact risk, she says.
Bats are key indicator species — their presence, absence and movement patterns reflect changes in habitat health, climate stress and land-use practices. Detecting an endangered species here highlights FGCU’s role within the broader Gulf Coast ecosystem and underscores the importance of protecting habitat in rapidly developing areas.
Tracking bats may sound like a hands-on pursuit, but Goodwin rarely comes face-to-face with her subjects.
“I really have no interaction with physical bats, although I would love to do that in the future. That calls for a lot of paperwork, permitting and a rabies shot,” Goodwin says. “Instead, I work with sound.”
A typical field day involves locating likely bat habitat, often where forest meets open space.
“Then I find an ideal spot at the location to set a recorder, usually a tall tree or light post,” she says. Height is better for sound quality because it minimizes echo.
The devices remain in place for three days before she returns to retrieve the recordings and analyze the data.
Not just students like it here
The discovery of bonneted bats within the ecosystem raises an important question: What makes FGCU such an attractive place for bats?
“Most people I’ve talked to are surprised that we have bats at all,” Goodwin says.
Habitats that combine large trees with adjacent open spaces tend to support the greatest bat activity. Open areas provide easy feeding grounds, while forests and wetlands offer places to roost, rest and breed.
Bonneted bats can travel as much as 20 miles in a single night while searching for insects, making their presence an encouraging sign of ecosystem health.
“If bonneted bats are using the FGCU campus as a foraging ground, that means our campus has a healthy enough ecosystem to support enough insects to allow all bats to consistently use this area for foraging. This also means that we haven’t overdeveloped our campus, as we still have adequate habitat to provide good foraging ground.”
Several other bat species frequent the area, including Mexican free-tailed bats, evening bats, hoary bats and northern yellow bats, according to Goodwin.
“Florida is an increasingly developing state, and we are one of the highest states for population growth in the entire country,” she says. “The biggest killer to our bat populations is loss of habitat due to human development, so if we increase our artificial roosting sites in the correct areas, I think it would help our bat populations drastically. Which is great because they are free insect repellent.”
For Goodwin, the bats’ presence represents proof that development and conservation can coexist.
“I’ve decided to stick to the FGCU campus for the duration of my project,” she says. “I’m working to develop a conservation plan and a possible bat box installation guide for the FGCU campus.”