What’s To Fear About Bats?

Bats are kind of the hallmark of Halloween. They tend to creep many people out because they fly around at night when humans can’t see well. And let’s face it, many of them look kind of weird and scary, but bats are very important to both the environment and to people.

The types of bats we have in the northern U.S. are insect eaters. A single bat can eat its weight in insects each night. And by eating all those insects, they keep the insects from eating farmer’s crops. This saves U.S. farmers billions of dollars a year. In other areas of the country other bats pollinate plants like cacti and in other parts of the world fruit bats pollinate trees and spread fruit seeds. There are 1,300 species of bats worldwide and only 3 out of those 1,300 feed on blood. Yes, vampire bats do exist, but they don’t turn into vampires that stalk the night and usually don’t feed on people. Most of the time they are content to feed on animals, inflicting only small wounds to drink around 1 ounce of blood per night (or 2 tablespoons). And unless you are in certain Central or South American countries, you will never run across one.

There are lots of neat and positive things about bats, but bats are also in trouble. Disease and habitat loss are causing their numbers to go down globally. In the United States, millions of bats have died due to the introduction of white-nose syndrome. Yet there are things we can do to help; simple things that you can even do in your own backyard.

Watch this short video to learn more about this flying mammal (by the way, it’s the only mammal that truly can fly). They’re not nearly as scary as they seem.

Long-Eared Bat Added to Endangered Species List

Michigan DNR applauds USFWS northern long-eared bat decision

Michigan DNR sent this bulletin at 04/01/2015 11:07 AM EDT

Press Release

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 1, 2015

Contact: Dan Kennedy, Michigan DNR endangered species coordinator, 517-284-6194
or Ed Golder, Michigan DNR public information officer, 517-284-5815

Michigan DNR applauds U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s northern long-eared bat decision

Today the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced that it is listing the northern long-eared bat as a threatened species with an interim 4(d) rule under the Endangered Species Act. The interim 4(d) rule provides maximum benefit to the species while also providing reasonable limits to regulations.

“Michigan and other states worked collaboratively to provide critical information as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service evaluated the status of the northern long-eared bat,” said Keith Creagh, Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) director.

“The decision to list the bat as threatened with an interim 4(d) rule represents a biologically sound determination that will address the conservation needs of these bats in the specific areas of Michigan where they are found, while providing flexibility for those who live and work within the bats’ range,” Creagh added. “Looking ahead, we expect to continue working closely with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as we focus on finding the right solutions to this conservation challenge.”

The Michigan DNR and other Midwestern state natural resource agencies support the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s interim 4(d) rule because it allows states to conserve and protect the northern long-eared bat while continuing normal forest management activities and routine right-of-way maintenance. The decision should reduce the potential economic impact of the northern long-eared bat listing to the forestry and transportation industry.

Populations of northern long-eared bats have drastically declined due to white-nose syndrome, which has killed an estimated 5.5 million bats in the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest and Canada. The fungus that causes this disease thrives in low temperatures and high humidity – conditions commonly found in caves and mines where northern long-eared bats hibernate. In Michigan, white-nose syndrome has been confirmed in eight counties: Alpena, Dickinson, Keweenaw, Mackinac, Marquette, Ontonagon, Clare and Manistee.

In Michigan, the interim 4(d) rule allows certain activities that are considered a conservation benefit to northern long-eared bats as long as these activities:

• Occur more than .25 miles from a known, northern long-eared bat occupied hibernacula.
• Avoid cutting or destroying known, northern long-eared bat occupied maternity roost trees during the pup-rearing season (June 1-July 31).
• Avoid clearcuts within .25 miles of known, northern long-eared bat occupied maternity roost trees during the pup-rearing season (June 1-July 31).

These conservation measures are designed to protect bats when they are most vulnerable, including when they occupy hibernacula and during the two-month pup-rearing season from June through July. The greatest potential restrictions would be during these months, with reduced restrictions at all other times.

Activities that are allowed when the above listed measures are followed include:

• Forest management.
• Maintenance and expansion of existing rights-of-way and transmission corridors.
• Prairie management.
• Minimal tree removal projects.
• Removal of hazardous trees for protection of life and property.
• Removal of northern long-eared bats from human structures.
• Research-related activities.

Over the past 18 months, the Michigan DNR has provided leadership on this issue by:

• Nationally, working with regional forestry and wildlife state agency associations to develop reasonable and appropriate conservation measures that benefit the northern long-eared bat and allow for sustainable natural resource management in Michigan.
• Regionally, assisting the Midwest Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and the Northeastern Area Association of State Foresters with developing and submitting scientifically sound recommendations to the U.S. Fish Wildlife Service on the proposed northern long-eared bat listing.
• Leading the effort (sponsored by the Midwest Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies) to convene a three-day, state-led northern long-eared bat conference that helped state natural resource agencies discuss scientifically based recommendations for the USFWS on the northern long-eared bat final listing decision.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is reopening the public comment period April 2, 2015, to continue evaluating the interim 4(d) rule. A final decision on the interim 4(d) rule is expected by December 2015.

To learn more about the northern long-eared bat and the final listing determination, visit the USFWS website http://www.fws.gov/midwest/endangered/mammals/nlba/.

To learn more about the history and background of white-nose syndrome in Michigan, visit the DNR website www.michigan.gov/wns.

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The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is committed to the conservation, protection, management, use and enjoyment of the state’s natural and cultural resources for current and future generations. For more information, go to www.michigan.gov/dnr.

There May Be a Silver Lining for North American Bats

If you have read any of the stories about bats and white-nose syndrome the last few years it has all been rather depressing. It seemed like the disease kept spreading, wiping out bat populations by the millions. There has even been talk of putting a couple of species on the Endangered Species List because of it.

But amidst all the gloom and doom there seems to be a ray of hope. Bat populations in previously infected areas seem to be rebounding…slightly, but still it’s an improvement. These are areas where researchers feared bats would be wiped out completely, never to return, and yet they still persist. Scientists are also getting closer and closer to discovering the causes that cause the fungus to kill bats in the first place.

So all may not be lost for our beloved North American bats. Keep the faith.

 

Good News For Bats! Things Are Looking Up For Stemming Disease Spread

January 13, 2015 3:33 AM ET

Brian Mann

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Morning Edition

3 min 29 sec

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This October 2008 photo, provided by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, shows a brown bat with its nose crusted in fungus. Ryan von Linden/AP hide caption

  

The bat disease known as white-nose syndrome has been spreading fast, killing millions of animals. But for the first time, scientists are seeing hopeful signs that some bat colonies are recovering and new breakthroughs could help researchers develop better strategies for helping bats survive.

Back in 2009, it seemed dire. In Vermont, the floor of the Aeolus Cave in the Green Mountains was carpeted with tiny bat bodies and their delicate bones. Scientists like Scott Darling with Vermont’s Fish and Wildlife Department were shaken by the carnage.

“This is just far more than I expected. It’s way more, so many more dead bats here,” Darling said then.

The first case of white-nose syndrome was found in Schoharie, N.Y. This map shows the cases detected since then. To enlarge, click here. Lindsey Heffernan/PA Game Commission hide caption

 

Scientists say a quarter-million animals have died here since white-nose syndrome was first identified in 2007, many of their tiny faces crusted with the white fungus that gives this disease its name. But on a recent trip to the cave, bats are still living here, though the population is much smaller.

Jonathan Reichard, national assistant coordinator for white-nose syndrome for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was part of a team that recently caught and inspected bats at Aeolus Cave.

“It’s a little bit of a curveball to be here today, six years after being here and seeing all the dead bats, to think that there are still bats in there,” Reichard says.

He feared that this disease might exterminate the animals, sweeping them from large parts of North America. “The declines in that species have slowed down or even reversed in some cases. There’s evidence that colonies may even be increasing at a slight tick,” Reichard says.

There’s other good news. While researchers study the tough little holdouts here in Vermont, a wildlife veterinarian at the University of Wisconsin has been cracking the code on how exactly white-nose syndrome kills these animals. The study’s lead author, Michelle Verant, says the fungus causes bats’ bodies to overheat, burning energy too quickly.

“The amount of fat energy that bats affected with white-nose syndrome used was twice as much as the healthy bats,” she says.

Verant says hibernating bats begin to starve. Some flee into the deadly cold searching for more food.

She thinks her work, funded by the U.S. Geological Survey, could help point the way toward helping more bats survive. Scientists are scrambling to develop targeted fungicides that might kill white nose outright. In the meantime, Verant says wildlife managers need to make sure bats are healthy and plump before they go into the caves for the winter.

“The best thing that we can do right now is supporting bats with good habitat and reducing those additional stressors,” she says.

As this disease spreads west, Verant’s findings will play a big part in the debate over the federal government’s response. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is now deciding whether one type of bat called the northern long-eared should be added to the endangered species list. Last month, Canada’s government did just that, adding three types of bats to its list of endangered animals.

Batman Movie Crew Speaks for the Real Bats

When environmental issues get Hollywood’s attention it can be to the benefit of all involved. Let’s face it, having notoriety gets you greater attention and reaches more people, people who might otherwise not pay attention to the issue at all.

The cast and crew of the new Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice movie have done just that for the namesake of one of their lead characters: the bat.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was filmed right here in Michigan. During their stay director Zach Snyder heard a NPR story about the devastation white-nose syndrome is causing in North America’s bat population, including in his home state of Wisconsin. Working with the Organization for Bat Conservation (which is based at the Cranbrook Institute of Science in Bloomfield Hills) right down the street from the film set, he and his crew formed a plan to help spread the word.

The cast and crew created a PSA highlighting the importance of bats to our ecosystem and what we can do to help them. They even repurposed parts of their film set to make bat boxes.

And all of this has been perfect timing since the last week of October is National Bat Week. Learn more about bats and how you can help by visiting www.savebats.org.

The whole news story can be found here (USA Today: Affleck Video Supports Bat Conservation).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The video can be seen in a link in the article or on YouTube.

Bees and Bats Get a Boost

There have been a couple noteworthy federal grants awarded recently that will benefit environmental research efforts. One was a $223,602 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grant awarded to researchers at Western Michigan University to fund a collaborative research effort into white-nose syndrome in the hopes of finding a solution to combat the disease. The other was a $6.3 million U.S. Department of Agriculture grant awarded to Michigan State University to support native pollinator research and education outreach efforts.

These grants will hopefully bring great successes to two very different, but equally important issues. We rely on both bats and bees to keep our environment productive and balanced. Check out the details of these projects in the following articles.

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White-nose syndrome in bats subject of $223,000 grant awarded to two Western Michigan University professors

Photo Courtesy of Marvin Moriarty | United States Federal Wildlife Service

By  Yvonne Zipp | yzipp@mlive.comThe Kalamazoo Gazette
on July 11, 2014 at 10:30 AM, updated July 11, 2014 at 10:39 AM

KALAMAZOO, MI — Two Western Michigan University researchers have been awarded almost a quarter of a million dollars by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to study white-nose syndrome in bats.

The $223,602 grant was part of an overall $1.8 million targeted toward eight projects across the U.S. focused on research and management of white-nose syndrome.

The fungal infection has killed at least 6 million bats in 27 states and five Canadian provinces since it was first documented in New York in the winter of 2006-07. Cases of white-nose syndrome were reported in northern Michigan for the first time this year.

“Bats are fascinating animals that are vital for a healthy environment. We are hopeful that these investments into research will get us closer to getting the upper hand on this devastating disease,” said Wendi Weber, co-chair of the White-Nose Syndrome Executive Committee and northeast regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in a statement.

Maarten Vonhof, associate professor of biological sciences and the environmental studies, and Robert Eversole, master faculty specialist in biological sciences, will be heading the research at WMU. Timothy Carter of Ball State University and Kevin Keel of the University of California in Davis also will collaborate on the project.

The group will test the efficacy of chitosan, a compound obtained from the outer skeleton of shellfish, to limit the growth of white-nose syndrome — Pseudogymnoascus destructans — on experimentally infected bats. The compound prevents the fungus from growing and is a wound-healing accelerant that may help to limit damage to bats’ skin caused by the fungus.

Eventually, the research may lead to a treatment that is available for widespread use to treat hibernating populations of bats.

In all, eight projects in New York, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin received funding through the service’s Endangered Species Recovery and Science Applications program.

Since 2008, the service has granted more than $17.5 million to institutions and federal and state agencies for white-nose syndrome research, according to a press release.

“Scientists from around the world are working together to understand this disease, and to develop the tools to manage WNS and conserve our native bats,” said Dr. Jeremy Coleman, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s national white-nose syndrome coordinator. “Findings from past research have led to improved methods for detecting Pseudogymnoascus destructans, development of potential tools to slow disease spread and treat infected bats and the development of a national bat population monitoring program.”

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Published: Aug. 6, 2014

USDA awards MSU $6.9 million grant to help bees

 

Contact(s): Layne Cameron Media Communications office: (517) 353-8819 cell: (765) 748-4827 Layne.Cameron@cabs.msu.edu, Rufus Isaacs Entomology isaacsr@msu.edu, Jennifer Martin USDA office: (202) 720-8188 jmartin@nifa.usda.gov

 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture has awarded $6.9 million to Michigan State University to develop sustainable pollination strategies for specialty crops in the United States.

“Specialty crops are valued at more than $50 billion every year, and pollination is critical to ensure successful fruit set and profitability of the industry,” said Sonny Ramaswamy, NIFA director. “With the recent declines in pollinator numbers, especially honey bees, this grant is extremely important for the sustainability of the specialty crop industry in the United States, which produces the fruits, vegetables and nuts recommended by USDA for a healthy diet.”

The research and outreach efforts being supported by this grant will provide growers with information on pollination, pollinators and management practices that will keep their crops productive year after year, he added.

The grant was funded through the Specialty Crop Research Initiative, part of the 2014 Farm Bill that was signed at MSU.

Rufus Isaacs, MSU AgBioResearch entomology researcher and extension specialist, will lead the project with the goal of developing and delivering context-specific integrated crop pollination recommendations on how to effectively harness the potential of native bees for crop pollination.

“This next stage of funding is essential for continuing the work of the team of more than 50 people across the nation who are dedicated to the goals of our project,” Isaacs said. “We have established and measured bees and crop yields in more than 100 fields at farms from California to Pennsylvania, some pollinated with honey bees, some with wildflower habitat added for pollinators and some augmented with other types of managed bees.”

The team will continue to monitor the fields and compare the performance, economics and social aspects of these tactics while developing educational and decision-support information for specialty crop pollination, he added.

These ICP strategies are designed to improve long-term sustainability of U.S. specialty crops and help ensure the continued ability of growers to reap profitable returns from their investments in land, plants and other production inputs.

Isaacs and the team will:

• Identify economically valuable pollinators and the factors affecting their abundance.
• Develop habitat management practices to improve crop pollination.
• Determine performance of alternative managed bees as specialty crop pollinators.
• Demonstrate and deliver ICP practices to specialty crops growers.
• Determine optimal methods for ICP information delivery and measure ICP adoption.
• Analyze economics and modeling of pollination ecosystem services.

 

MSU first received a SCRI grant for $1.7 million to begin this work in fiscal year 2012, the final year of the 2008 Farm Bill.

MSU’s team includes scientists from Loyola University, Franklin and Marshall College, Penn State University, University of Florida, University of Vermont, The Xerces Society, the University of California-Davis and UC-Berkeley, the USDA Agricultural Research Service and a private company, Pacific Pollination. The project also includes a large number of collaborating farmers providing in-kind support such as their land for conducting the research, and a diverse advisory board of stakeholders.

Through federal funding and leadership for research, education and extension programs, NIFA focuses on investing in science and solving critical issues affecting people’s daily lives and the nation’s future. For more information, visit http://www.nifa.usda.gov.