Heading to Glacier National Park in Montana next week and wondering what you can do after driving the Going-to-the-Sun Road? There's a special ranger program scheduled for July 18 that might be good to add to your to-do list.

The park's “Going Batty” field trip will be held on Thursday, July 18, in West Glacier from 8 to 11:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public, but participation is limited and requires advance registration.

Glacier National Park biologist Lisa Bate and her staff, along with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, will lead participants on this late-evening field trip to a site with known bat activity. Wildlife staff will set up mist nets to capture and process bats and use acoustic detectors to detect the ultrasonic calls of bats flying overhead. These monitoring efforts are critical as bats face several threats, including a disease known as white-nose syndrome.

Participants will not be allowed to touch or handle bats and need to provide their own headlamps or flashlights, suitable clothing for the weather including sturdy footwear as well as a small backpack with food, water, extra clothing layers, and bear spray. Participants should also bring their own face masks for protection against transfer of disease from humans to bats.

This field trip is limited to 35 participants. For more information and to sign-up, visit https://volunteersignup.org/733L8.

Bats make up one-fourth of all mammalian species found on Earth. They range in size from the tiny bumblebee bat, weighing less than a penny, to the flying fox bat, which can have a wingspan of up to six feet.