White-Nose Syndrome:
Something is killing our bats
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| Photo: Marvin Moriarty/USFWS |
Little brown bat at Greeley Mine, Vermont, with white-nose syndrome, March 26, 2009.
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Current news
The Department of the Interior appropriations bill contains $1.9 million for research, monitoring and related activities to respond to the massive mortality in bats from white-nose syndrome. Congress passed the bill Oct. 30, and President Obama signed it the same day.
Lincoln Caverns in Huntingdon, Pa., hosted "Hauntingdon Night" in October. A portion of each ticket purchase went to Bat Conservation International's White-Nose Syndrome Research Rapid Response Fund. Since June, Lincoln Caverns has encouraged visitors to contribute to WNS research. They have collected more than $2,000. Individual visitors contributed, as did a Methodist Church youth group. Lincoln Caverns staff chose to donate money collected in a wishing well; a school coloring contest featured a bat illustration and asked students to tape dimes to their artwork as contributions; and guests at a State College girl's 10th birthday party contributed to the WNS research in lieu of presents.
The Service announced six research grants Oct. 26. The projects funded will search for the cause and a way to control white-nose syndrome. The grants came from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Preventing Extinction fund and totaled $800,000.
News Release
In mid-October, New York DEC biologists helped set up video cameras in a mine where WNS has severely impacted hibernating bats. The U.S. Geological Survey and National Park Service planned and funded this project, which is also monitoring a cave likely to become affected by WNS this winter. The video surveillance will monitor for aberrant behaviors of hibernating bats, such as excessive grooming, unusually long periods of activity, or winter flight. USGS researchers are assessing whether such behaviors could be the link between skin infection by the fungus Geomyces destructans and death by starvation after premature depletion of winter fat reserves. Preliminary results are expected by late spring 2010.
State fish and wildlife agencies have until Jan. 8 to apply for state wildlife grants. Last year, Northeast Region states combined forces and received $940,870 for white-nose syndrome work.
The Service's Northeast Regional Director Marvin Moriarty presented the framework for a national plan to manage the national response to white-nose syndrome during a meeting of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Sept. 13 to 16 in Austin, Texas. The draft framework for A Plan for Assisting States, Federal Agencies, and Tribes in Managing White-Nose Syndrome in Bats was prepared in coordination with the U.S. Geological Survey, National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service and state agencies. It provides an overview of the expected plan content.
The population of endangered Indiana bats in the Service's Northeast Region dropped 30 percent from 2007 to 2009, according to preliminary estimates from the 2009 count of Indiana bats. The Northeast Region has 12 to 13 percent of the Indiana bat population. We will release final results later this year.
On the evening of Sept. 10, biologists from the FWS and from the State of Vermont met at Elizabeth Mine in Strafford, Vt., for an annual bat survey. In years past the survey has yielded a sample of 900 bats. Last year this number dropped to 300, and this year biologists captured only one bat. Although the survey measures a fraction of the bat population in the mine, it seems to indicate a significant drop in bat numbers.
See the video.
Epilogue: Two nights later, Vermont's Scott Darling returned to the site. It was a perfect night for bats -- warmer than on the 10th and not too bright. Again, he found just one bat.
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