Legacy of Bat Deaths Will Continue for Years

By Jack Sullivan
STORRS - White nose syndrome, which has already killed hundreds of thousands of bats in the northeast, is an issue that needs to be addressed immediately, said Jenny Dickson, wildlife biologist for the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection.
Dickson said that is that it is very difficult to restore the bat populations because bats can live 20 to 30 years, and often produce only one offspring annually.
“Even if we could magically stop white nose syndrome right now, we still wouldn’t be able to recover the population for at least a decade,” said Dickson.
At a recent talk at the University of Connecticut, Dickson stressed the severity of the issue, and the continued funding and research that will be needed to find the cause and possible cure of the disease.
According to Dickson, white nose syndrome occurs only in cave-roosting bats, and it is named for the fuzzy white fungus often found on the nose and faces of the afflicted. Dickson said that the fungus can also spread to the wings and tail membranes of the bats as it worsens.
While it is unknown where the disease came from or how to stop it, Dickson said that researchers are almost positive that the massive bat deaths are directly related to the fungus. Almost every dead bat found since 2006 has had it. Dickson said affected bats are severely dehydrated and have little to no fat reserves. She said that their wings can also get dehydrated and suffer severe cracks and damage.
Dickson also said that affected bats show abnormal behavior that can lead to their death. She said that they will cluster near cave entrances, which they don’t normally do, and they will often fly outside during the day in the winter during hibernation. This can cause them to freeze to death or get caught in ice or snow.
One thing that can cause the disease to spread is that bats tend to cluster together in caves. Dickson said that the Indiana Bat, a federally endangered species that hibernates in Connecticut during the winter, gathers in packs of up to 300 in one square foot. This makes it very easy to spread fungal spores and cause white nose syndrome to spread.
The first known case of white nose syndrome was documented on Feb. 16, 2006, in the Howe Cave near Albany, N.Y. Dickson said that at first, it wasn’t taken seriously, but by 2007, dead bats were seen more often in New York and Vermont. Since then, the disease has spread like wildfire across the northeast, also killing bats in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Dickson said that cases of white nose syndrome have also been found in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, and Virginia this year.
Bats play a role in the pollination of wild crops, but they are most useful to humans for their huge role in insect control, said Dickson. She said that 70 percent of bats in the world eat insects, and they help control insect population booms on a nightly basis. She said they also are known to eat some agricultural pests, and are considered important in the agriculture business.
If this disease keeps spreading and killing off the bat population, Dickson said that it will cause a ripple effect over time. She said it could mean that we won’t have effective control of disease-carrying bugs that could not only infect humans, but crops and trees as well. More money would have to be spent on pesticides, and over time, the economy would take a big hit from the increased bug and pest control it would have to undertake.
Congress in October appropriated $1.9 million towards research on white nose syndrome. Also, in a separate action, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service earlier in October awarded six grants totaling $800,000 towards further research. Dickson said that sites have already been mapped in the northeast to keep tabs on how quickly the disease is spreading and where it’s spreading.
She said that over the upcoming winter, weight and condition studies will be performed on hibernating bats, as well as surveys of their winter hibernation shelters. There will also be additional surveys of their hibernation areas throughout regions of the country to compare conditions of the areas where the disease is and isn’t spreading. Other than that, Dickson said there will be individual capture studies, and continued lab research into the fungus and other possible mortality factors.
Dickson said that the public can help the cause by reporting any bat maternity colonies that they come across. She said that in Connecticut, research was done during the summer on maternity sites to see how the bats are responding and reproducing. Another option would be to assist in bat conservation efforts, by building bat houses where bats could possibly get away from the disease.
The biggest role that the public could play, said Dickson, would be to help raise awareness. She thinks that due to pop culture, many Americans are terrified of bats, and don’t take any interest in the importance of bats and the seriousness of this disease.
“Most people don’t get the opportunity to see them up close and understand how interesting and unique they are,” she said.
If people don’t start to take notice and support the research for white nose syndrome, we may soon see a world without bats. Hopefully it doesn’t take that long for people to realize how important they really are.