Beavers and Bats in Lethbridge – Adventure for Wilderness, September 9, 2026
September 9, 2026
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text and photos by Lindsey Wallis
Hosted by the Helen Schuler Nature Centre, our Adventure program combined learning about two underappreciated neighbours who provide their essential services free of charge. Beavers and bats provide a wealth of ecosystem services, from pest management to flood and drought control. Participants were able to learn more about the importance and secret lives of these animals as we wandered through the city’s river valley. A big thank you to Chelsea and her volunteers for hosting us at the centre, as well as Kirby and Jason who shared their knowledge with us.
Kirby England must have bribed the beavers, because they showed up right on cue, swimming among the pilings of the High Level Bridge, and really putting on a show for us with some tail slapping! Along the riverbank we searched for scent mounds, where beavers pile up mud and deposit their smelly castor atop it to let other beavers know who they are. Unfortunately, these mounds also made them easy targets for trappers, who would set their traps on the mounds as part of the continent-wide assault on beavers in the last two centuries.
As dusk fell, we pulled out our bat detectors loaned to us by the Alberta Community Bat program and Jason Headley spoke about the roles bats play in our ecosystem, as well as serious threats they are currently facing, including white-nose syndrome and wind turbines. To wrap up the evening Jason had set up a sheet with a light near the interpretive centre so we could discover what the bats were eating. Since it was September there weren’t many bugs around but we saw a few moths and other insects that would potentially be bat dinner.
