Studying Bats in North Dakota - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

Studying Bats in North Dakota

Three North Dakota students get a unique internship opportunity with Nasa.

They're not studying stars or planets, though.

These students spent six weeks at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffet Field California studying bats.

The students finished their project today by presenting their findings at United Tribes Technical College.

The purpose of their research was to find out what kind of habitats bat species native to North Dakota live in.

Steven Walker was the only United Tribes student to be a part of this program.

Steven Walker/Student:

Why it's such an important part to understand these species is because they have such a huge economic impact on agricultural products...what these bats do is they eat insects. These insects are targeting different corn, sunflowers, and so and so forth. They help reduce the pesticide costs that farmers have to use to keep these pests away."

Walker said very little research on bat habitats in North Dakota has been done.

He hopes their findings can have an impact on North Dakota Agriculture.