{"id":1337,"date":"2015-03-10T00:52:23","date_gmt":"2015-03-10T00:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/backyardsfornature.org\/?p=1337"},"modified":"2015-03-10T01:48:24","modified_gmt":"2015-03-10T01:48:24","slug":"bats-in-peril","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/backyardsfornature.org\/?p=1337","title":{"rendered":"Bats in Peril"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Barb Elliot<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

OK.\u00a0 I\u2019ll confess.\u00a0 I love bats! \u00a0Fifteen years ago my father and I built a bat house for them.\u00a0 Each spring, I watch expectantly for \u201cmy\u201d bats to return to their bat house.\u00a0 And, every spring they have come back.\u00a0 I always breathe a sigh of relief.<\/p>\n

\"Barb's<\/a>

Barb’s pole-mounted rocket-style bat box awaits the spring return of “her” bats. \u00a9 Barb Elliot. \u00a0Click to enlarge.<\/p><\/div>\n

Through summer and early fall I watch them at dusk.\u00a0 I thrill to see two or three flying in large circles over my yard.\u00a0 Watching them swerve and swoop, I marvel as they deftly capture night-flying insects. \u00a0Using echolocation — emitting sound waves that bounce off objects and echo back to them — they successfully locate, catch and consume mosquitoes, moths, and beetles that fly in the dark.\u00a0 Each night they eat half their body weight (lactating females eat 100% their body weight) in insects\u2013 as many as 1,000 insects an hour!\u00a0 Mosquitoes are not a problem in my yard.\u00a0 By eating insect pests, bats offer their services to farmers, too. Farmers can use fewer pesticides and save money. Consequently, our food costs are lower, and an added benefit, pesticides are kept off our food and out of the environment.<\/p>\n

\"Cluster_of_little_brown_bats_myotis_lucifugus<\/a>

Cluster of hibernating Little Brown Bats. Wikimedia Commons image by Tim Krynak, USFWS.<\/p><\/div>\n

Nine species of bats, all insect-eaters, live in Pennsylvania.\u00a0 Three species (Hoary, Red, and Silver-haired) migrate south in the fall, to find insects.\u00a0The other six species, including \u201cmy\u201d Big Brown Bats, head to caves or mines (known as hibernacula) where they hibernate until insects become plentiful again in the spring. In the cold, constant temperature of a hibernaculum the bats roost huddled together in groups. \u00a0They enter a state of torpor, lowering their\u00a0body temperatures (from 108 degrees to 39 \u2013 59 degrees F). Their heart rates slow (from 1000 beats per minute to 10 bpm) to conserve energy and they live off their fat stores.\u00a0\u00a0Every three weeks,\u00a0the bats rouse themselves.\u00a0 Their body temperatures and heart rates rise briefly to normal summer rates before returning to their state of torpor.<\/p>\n

Hibernating bats are dying in droves.\u00a0 In 2006, a cold-loving fungus from Europe<\/p>\n

\"Little<\/a>

Little Brown Bat displaying White-nose Syndrome. Wikimedia Commons. Image by Marvin Moriarty USFWS.<\/p><\/div>\n

(Pseudogymnoascus destructans<\/em>) was found in bats in four caverns in upstate New York.\u00a0This fungus, which thrives in the cold of caves and mines,\u00a0causes a disease in bats known as White-nose Syndrome (WNS).\u00a0\u00a0WNS is fatal and has decimated bat\u00a0populations.\u00a0 It damages bats\u2019 muscles, connective tissues, and skin, and causes them to rouse more frequently (every 5 days vs. every 3 weeks).\u00a0 \u00a0Their fat stores are depleted during the winter, Death occurs well before spring.<\/p>\n

White-nose syndrome has spread rapidly.\u00a0 Confirmed in PA in winter 2008-2009, it is now in 25 states and 5 Canadian provinces.\u00a0 The disease has killed over 95% of bats at every wintering site.\u00a0 (See chart for the heartbreaking declines of our PA bats.)\u00a0 PA has lost<\/p>\n

\"Losses<\/a>

Losses at 34 hibernacula are representative of PA statewide bat species losses. \u00a0Click to enlarge.<\/p><\/div>\n

more bats than any other state.\u00a0 Hibernacula that previously held tens of thousands of bats now hold just a few hundred or fewer. \u00a0Overall, PA has lost over 99% of its total bat population because the largest die-off has been in Little Brown Bats, formerly the most populous PA species.<\/p>\n

WNS has killed over 5.7 million bats \u2014 the worst disease to affect North American wildlife<\/p>\n

\"March,<\/a>

March, 2015 map from White-noseSyndrome.org showing spread of WNS to states and provinces. \u00a0Click to open in separate window.<\/p><\/div>\n

in centuries.\u00a0 It continues its deadly march.\u00a0 Scientists at many laboratories and federal and state agencies are investigating ways to control WNS and protect bats.\u00a0 If a solution is found, it could still take hundreds of years for some bat species to return to pre-WNS levels. After all, most bat species have just one or two pups a year.<\/p>\n

\"Red<\/a>

Red Bat with 3 pups, though most bat species have just 1 or 2 pups a year. Wikimedia Commons image by Josh Henderson. \u00a0Click to enlarge.<\/p><\/div>\n

WNS is a daunting disease, but there are things you can do to help bats:<\/p>\n