RACC Virtual Seminar Series Recording: Challenges for Virginia’s Native Bats

Leslie Sturges, President of the Bat Conservation & Rescue of Virginia led an in-depth discussion of Virginia’s native bats and the conservation challenges our bats face. Leslie presented a brief overview of bats’ natural history, regional species, touched on local conservation issues and how to address them, and introduced one of our education ambassadors followed by questions and answers from the audience.

This program is geared toward an adult audience, information may be a little advanced for younger kids.

Leslie Sturges has been a wildlife enthusiast all her life. One of her earliest memories is feeding grass stems to a nestful of almost-weaned meadow voles she discovered in her backyard. She housed and bred snakes, turtles, lizards, frogs, and insects before becoming a zookeeper with the Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park. She left the zoo to join Montgomery County Parks as a park naturalist. In 2001, Leslie opened Bat World NOVA, a satellite rescue center of Bat World Sanctuary, so that she could pursue a lifelong love of bats. In 2011, she founded Bat Conservation & Rescue of Virginia (then known as The Save Lucy Campaign) to focus on white-nose syndrome, bats native to the eastern US, youth advocacy, and conservation education through art. Over the past 20 years, she has cared for well over 1,000 bats and has maintained a colony of bats that visit schools and other venues to educate the public about bats and wildlife conservation.