Franklin Park Biodiversity Project

Zoo New England leads the Boston Biodiversity Consortium, an informal network of colleagues working in areas related to biodiversity. Through quarterly meetings, the consortium brings together a broad range of like-minded individuals, institutions, and organizations to learn about each other’s work in biodiversity and look for ways to collaborate and add value to each other’s projects. At each meeting, we invite several speakers to present on their work, stimulating rich exchange of ideas and growth of a biodiversity community in greater Boston. Participants have included several local universities (UMass, Brandeis, Suffolk, Lesley, Wellesley, and others), the Arnold Arboretum, the Boston Harbor Ecosystem Network, Mass Audubon, Biodiversity for a Livable Climate, and many more. 

Any interested parties, including students, are always welcome! If you would like additional information or would like to join the Consortium, please visit their website.

Zoo New England was awarded a Scientific Product Grant from Wildlife Acoustics Inc., which will provide EchoMeter Touch bat detectors, recorder and analyzer systems for staff and volunteers to collect and analyze bat vocalizations within the park using their smart phones. The Echo Meter Touch allows bat echolocation calls to be viewed on a spectrogram and tagged with bats’ exact locations using GPS. Zoo New England was one of five grant recipients from a pool of 80 applicants covering 25 countries and six continents.

With over 1,200 species, bats make up one fifth of the earth’s mammals. They are also among the most endangered of the world's creatures, primarily due to habitat loss and further threatened by a fungal disease devastating many bat colonies in North America. Often considered a “keystone species,” bats play a critical role in the ecosystem in terms of insect control, plant pollination, seed dissemination and fertilization. Their loss would have serious consequences for the ecosystems to which they belong and health ramifications for humans as well. A single little brown bat, the most common bat species in the U.S., can eat up to thousands of insects in one night, providing protection against mosquito-borne illnesses and potential crop pests.

THANK YOU!
Tools used in our bat studies were generously awarded by Wildlife Acoustics, Inc. as part of a Scientific Product Grant.

Through the use of camera traps, the team was able to capture photos of animals (pictured here) that would otherwise not be encountered during the day. In the future, cameras will be used to monitor habitat niches and to observe how natural resources like tree holes, rock formations and water sources are used by wildlife.

While a multitude of species have been recorded, the team also discovered that invasive plants, particularly knotweed, are causing detrimental effects to wetlands and areas that support vernal pools. Observations made through the Biodiversity Project will help inform plans to remove invasive species and restore or replace native plants.