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The presence of the little brown bats was confirmed using mist nets — similar to oversized badminton nets but with a finer weave — to catch them this past summer.

Photo by Parks Canada / For the Calgary Herald

Once caught, the bats were quickly handled by the team before being returned to the wild.

“They are used to visually confirm bats and to do a health assessment,” Boyle said of the nets, noting no sign of white-nose syndrome was found in the area’s population.

Bats are an integral part of the ecosystem, eating their body weight each night in mosquitoes, moths and agricultural pests.

Since 2006, white-nose syndrome has killed millions of bats in the eastern United States and five eastern provinces in Canada — and experts suggest it’s only a matter of time before it hits Western Canada.

Some of the newly confirmed bat species in Glacier National Park are at risk for the disease.

The Nakimu Caves, a system of cold, damp caverns and narrow passages, are in theory the perfect hibernation spot for the park’s little brown myotis and northern myotis.

Boyle said they’ve confirmed the bats are using the caves as swarming, or mating, sites. It’s still unknown, however, whether they are overwintering there or just passing through.

“If we have bats that are hibernating, we would limit winter access to the caves,” said Boyle, explaining it could lead to changes in the way they manage the cave system in the coming years.

The results come as the Wildlife Conservation Society of Canada teams up with cavers across Western Canada to prevent the spread of white-nose syndrome through its new BatCaver program.