Currently, 17 of the 26 bat species now known to occur in California have been identified by capture, sightings, or acoustic records on the eight California Channel Islands. Of these only six species are known to breed on the islands. On Santa Cruz Island, breeding Yuma myotis (Myotis yumanensis) were documented in 2017 and a lactating long-legged myotis (M. volans) was captured in 2022, the latter a first for all the Channel Islands. In 2017 and again in 2018, we captured juvenile red bats on Santa Cruz Island indicating local breeding. Valdez and Haidar (pers.comm.) identified the 2018 capture by total genomic analysis as an eastern red bat (Lasiurus borealis), a new record of this species for California. Some call frequencies of eastern and western red bats (L. frantzii) overlap, however we infer that both species have been acoustically recorded on Santa Cruz, Santa Catalina and San Nicolas Islands. Between 2017 and 2022, long-term acoustic recording stations have been installed on Santa Cruz (Brown and Rainey); Santa Catalina (Santa Catalina Conservancy); San Nicolas (USN and USGS); and San Clemente, Anacapa and Santa Rosa Islands (USGS). Acoustic data have documented new species for all the islands, and several new records on individual islands.

For 55 years Patricia Brown has been conducting world-wide bat research, with emphasis on the southwestern U.S. After she received her doctorate from UCLA in 1973, she continued studying bats as a Research Associate at UCLA and a consultant to government agencies and private entities. Her research interests include bat hearing, echolocation, ontogeny, roosting and foraging ecology, with special interest in bats roosting in mines and currently the impacts of large-scale solar installations on bats, especially through the destruction of foraging habitat. As a member of the California and Western Bat Working Groups, Dr. Brown is passionate about the conservation of bats and their habitats.