Volunteer Opportunities

We are taking our first steps into volunteer programming this fall, with training in late August and September. If you are interested in joining us a pilot volunteer please fill out the form linked below:

VOLUNTEER INTEREST FORM

This season, Urban Bat Project will be piloting two volunteer programs: 

Bioacoustic Research Support - Our acoustic bat survey networks currently stretches across several parks in Manhattan and Brooklyn with plans for continued expansion in the near future. Helping us maintain these detectors and back-up their data is a small time commitment with the potential to support our research in a big way. 

Bat Rescue and Transport - Many of our bats in New York City migrate during the spring and fall. Migrating bats do not always know the best way through the city and it is not uncommon for us to receive calls about stranded individuals around the five boroughs. We are currently assembling and training a network of volunteers to help us respond to these situations as quickly as possible. For stranded bats, time can often be crucial and every moment we save getting it to a qualified rehabilitation center improves a bat's chances of survival. 

Important Note: About 3% of bats in New York State have been found to have rabies on average. Though this risk is numerically small, rabies itself is a grave disease that we take very seriously. Urban Bat Project will train volunteers interested in rescuing bats on how to minimize risk while handling and transporting bats; however, it is important to remember there is inherent risk in handling wildlife.