More bad news on the bat front..............

Warm-blooded air breathing content.

Moderator: Scott Waters

Post Reply
User avatar
jayder85
Posts: 369
Joined: January 1st, 2012, 7:14 am
Location: Pike County KY
Contact:

More bad news on the bat front..............

Post by jayder85 »

This is local news, but will have a direct impact on a national level. This news especially hit home for me, as Carter Caves State Park was where my career really began, and I have many fond childhood memories growing up there. The caves at this park holds what is most likely the largest hibernating population of Indiana Bats in the states. Kingdom Come State Park is only about 40 or so miles down Pine Mountain from where my park is (Breaks Interstate) I really hated to hear this.

http://www.lex18.com/mobile2/news/white ... ate-parks/
User avatar
dery
Posts: 1779
Joined: October 1st, 2011, 12:01 pm
Location: huntsville

Re: More bad news on the bat front..............

Post by dery »

Wheeler has a NWR near us w/ a great number of grey and indianas yearround. Most in the summer. Atleast we have most locales protected in the southeast. I know of one for greys that isn't, and people have left trash. I don't go there anymore, and carved a warning on the wood. Hopefully noone litters there anymore and stay away. :cry:
User avatar
Andy Avram
Posts: 897
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 10:37 am
Location: NE Ohio

Re: More bad news on the bat front..............

Post by Andy Avram »

Dery,
I think you need to readup on white-nose syndrome (along with anyone else not familar with it). This is not a disease that is spread by litter, or likely, even people going into the caves. This is not a disease that cares of the area is on protected land or not. This is a fungal infection that is killing bats by the millions. So much so that every single species of colony-hibernating bats in the US is now listed as Federally Threatened or Endangered because of the severity. The most likely avenue of fungal dispearsal is in the fall. Bats swarm and seek out any and every available cave for miles around. Infected bats end up infecting new caves. Once the disease hits, certain species (especially Myotis sp.) have a 90% die off, followed by a 90% die off of the following year's survivors, followed by a 90% die off of those following year's survivors. So for example a cave with 100 bats on year one has 10 bats on year two and on year three has 1 bat. Caves with millions a few years back now have less than 10. The caves cannot be disinfected. The bats can easily be cured of the disease, but become infected again once treated and they are back in the wild.

The fungal infection doesn't really kill the bat outright, but rather grows around their face (giving them a white-fluffy nose) and wakes the bats up out of hibernation. The bat cleans the fungus off, and re-enters hibernation until the fungus grows again. Bats dont catty a lot of weight, so once they burn off all their reserves (each wake up from hiberation burns a lot of fat) they must go out and look for food. Most bats you see flying around now is starving bats looking for, and not finding food. They end up starving. Southern US bats may have a better chance of survival as the moderate temperatures may assure them of finding food. BUT the disease hasnt really hit much of the south/southwest yet.

It is serious enough to the point, that people are looking into building giant artiifical caves that can be sterilized to keep some of these species from going extinct.

This is the bat version of Chytrid in frogs.
User avatar
dery
Posts: 1779
Joined: October 1st, 2011, 12:01 pm
Location: huntsville

Re: More bad news on the bat front..............

Post by dery »

Andy Avram wrote:Dery,
I think you need to readup on white-nose syndrome (along with anyone else not familar with it). This is not a disease that is spread by litter, or likely, even people going into the caves. This is not a disease that cares of the area is on protected land or not. This is a fungal infection that is killing bats by the millions. So much so that every single species of colony-hibernating bats in the US is now listed as Federally Threatened or Endangered because of the severity. The most likely avenue of fungal dispearsal is in the fall. Bats swarm and seek out any and every available cave for miles around. Infected bats end up infecting new caves. Once the disease hits, certain species (especially Myotis sp.) have a 90% die off, followed by a 90% die off of the following year's survivors, followed by a 90% die off of those following year's survivors. So for example a cave with 100 bats on year one has 10 bats on year two and on year three has 1 bat. Caves with millions a few years back now have less than 10. The caves cannot be disinfected. The bats can easily be cured of the disease, but become infected again once treated and they are back in the wild.

The fungal infection doesn't really kill the bat outright, but rather grows around their face (giving them a white-fluffy nose) and wakes the bats up out of hibernation. The bat cleans the fungus off, and re-enters hibernation until the fungus grows again. Bats dont catty a lot of weight, so once they burn off all their reserves (each wake up from hiberation burns a lot of fat) they must go out and look for food. Most bats you see flying around now is starving bats looking for, and not finding food. They end up starving. Southern US bats may have a better chance of survival as the moderate temperatures may assure them of finding food. BUT the disease hasnt really hit much of the south/southwest yet.

It is serious enough to the point, that people are looking into building giant artiifical caves that can be sterilized to keep some of these species from going extinct.

This is the bat version of Chytrid in frogs.
Yeh Andy. I didn't notice wns in the locale's bats, even though I saw trash. I was laughing at those signs near me. "caves closed to prevent wns", caves being closed just prevent what I saw and other vandalism. Here's that infamous sign I was mocking. http://archives.wfpl.org/wp-content/upl ... Notice.jpg
User avatar
Andy Avram
Posts: 897
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 10:37 am
Location: NE Ohio

Re: More bad news on the bat front..............

Post by Andy Avram »

I should have been a little more specific. I am sure people can/do/and have spread WNS, but I think it is likely negligable compared to the bat's spreading it. Even so, I don't think a bit of preventative measures, like keeping people out of the caves is a bad thing, especially during the hibernation period, as any wake up during then is bad for bats.
User avatar
dery
Posts: 1779
Joined: October 1st, 2011, 12:01 pm
Location: huntsville

Re: More bad news on the bat front..............

Post by dery »

Then there's the killing of bats. I saw one at the location dead but normal looking. It was the only death I ever saw there.
User avatar
jayder85
Posts: 369
Joined: January 1st, 2012, 7:14 am
Location: Pike County KY
Contact:

Re: More bad news on the bat front..............

Post by jayder85 »

I liken WNS to Athlete's foot. Athlete's foot won't kill you, but it itches like the devil! WNS awakens hibernating bats by itching. They use up their fat reserves and die. It in fact can be treated with with what is essentualy Dr. Scholl's Athletes Foot treatment. But, like Andy said, treating animals will just prolong the inevitable. In fact, even though they closed these caves down year round since word of WNS had come around, it was pretty well known that there would be nothing they could do to stop it from getting into those caves. Bats travel and interact with one another all the time. All it would take is an infected bat landing in an uninfected roost colony up North. Those bats travel to their winter roost and spread it to all other uninfected bats there. Believe it or not, 90% is low in many cases, as many colonies are experiencing 100% mortality.

I left working at the caves the year that I heard about WNS, which was a couple years after they found the initial site in NY. That year Jim Kennedy from BCI came to our park for the yearly check on our two caves that were closed due to being hibernacula for Indianas. He was sweating bullets about WNS coming to our park. Between two cave systems there are roughly 62,000 Indiana Bats and then you add all of the other Myotis, Big Ears, Big Browns and the other species that use those caves and you are looking at a huge die off. These bats have survived caves being trashed, public year round tours before it was a park, flash floods, Saltpetre mining, outright mass bat killings, and a damn souped up Athlete's Foot is what is going to exterminate them!
Post Reply