Bats

I was walking down to the mailbox this evening, right as twilight was deepening. The sky was still a fairly light blue, but the landscape had faded into shades of gray. That's when I saw the bat, flitting back and forth above me. It was just light enough so that when he made a sharp turn, I could just make out a line of light along the "finger" bones in his wing. I watched and silently cheered each turn. It was probably a little brown bat, Pennsylvania's most common bat, and just one of these fabulous little hunters can catch up to 1,200 insects in an hour. Watching bats fly always makes me smile. The sight brings back memories of summer nights at camp, watching the sunlight fade before going to eat my S'more at the campfire, surrounded by friends.

Bats in the northeast are in serious trouble, though. In 2006, a New York State wildlife biologist named Alan Hicks found a large number of dead bats in four caves around Albany. Some of them had a white fungus around their noses. In the time since then, the fungus Geomyces destructans has spread - as have over a million bat deaths. White-nose syndrome is prevalent in New Hampshire, Vermont, NewYork, Massachusetts, Connecticut, NewJersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia in the US, and in Quebec and Ontario in Canada. Slowly, however, the disease is spreading.

Scientists have no idea where this disease came from. They don't even know if the white fungus causes the death, or is an opportunistic infection which comes when the bats are hit by something else entirely. All they know is that something wakes up a hibernating bat, causing it to use up precious fat reserves. The bats then freeze or starve. No bat (as far as we know) has survived this disease. In some places, entire colonies of thousands of bats have died - their thin bodies piled on the floor of the cave for helpless bat scientists to find in the spring. Little brown bats seem particularly susceptible, but no bat species has proven immune. So far, there is no cure.

If current trends continue, the little brown bat will be nearly extinct by 2020.

So tonight, as I watched my neighborhood bat, I said a little prayer that his hibernation spot stays clean this year. Then I went to Bat Conservation International, and donated some money for research to combat this disease. Anybody who is reading this, please donate as well! Bats are not only wonderful creatures, but they are extremely important for the ecosystem. They are such effective predators of insects, no one really knows what might happen if they are suddenly taken out of the picture.

If nothing else, we are an ingenious species. We are clever. If anyone can figure this thing out, it will be us - but only if we have the will to do it. The white-nose fungus has been found on a bat in France...a totally healthy bat. Hopefully, this bat isn't the exception to the rule. Hopefully, we won't watch the destruction of European bats, too. Hopefully, this bat is actually immune to white-nose disease. If he is, maybe we can figure out a way to help our bats combat the disease.

I want my kids to watch bats in the summertime, too. Don't you?

For more information on white-nose syndrome, check out the U.S Fish& Wildlife FAQs and Bat Conservation International's FAQs. After you read up, here is where you can help the fight.