NDSU’s Bat Lady on the Hunt

The “Bat Lady” is trying to find out if people in the region have bats living in their buildings in the winter.

That is the nickname given to NDSU Biological sciences professor Erin Gillam.

She is heading a research project that focuses on the spread of white-nose syndrome, which has killed millions of bats in the U.S.

It was first discovered in New York in 2006 and has spread west, with the nearest report to the Dakotas in eastern Minnesota.

Gillam says many of the bats in the area migrate out in the winter, but she wants to study the ones that stay.