Winchester Academy will host UW biologist

Yahnke

Christopher Yahnke will present “Bats Under Attack” at 6:30 p.m. Monday, March 12, at the Waupaca Area Public Library.

The free program is sponsored by Winchester Academy.

Wisconsin is home to eight species of bats, all of them insect eaters.

Some of these bats migrate hundreds of miles south for the winter while others hibernate locally.

Each of these bats faces unique perils during this period when Wisconsinites are enjoying the lack of insects in the area.

In addition to introducing attendees to the bats of Wisconsin, Yahnke will share research on acoustic monitoring of bats over the past decade. He will explain how people can get involved in helping bats through citizen science initiatives.

Yahnke grew up in Milwaukee and received his undergraduate degree in zoology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

After serving in the Peace Corps in Paraguay, he did graduate work at Northern Illinois University, conducting research on the evolution of South American foxes in Chile, and the disease ecology of hantaviruses in Paraguay. He is in his 17th year in the biology department at UW-Stevens Point where he served nine years as department chair. He teaches mammalogy, ecology and evolution, comparative vertebrate anatomy, and conducts research on bat communities and citizen science.

Winchester Academy is funded through sponsors and tax-deductible donations.

For more information about Winchester Academy, visit winchesteracademywaupaca.org, follow the group on Facebook, or contact Executive Director Ann Buerger Linden at 715-258-2927 or [email protected]