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The poor bat - another one of those creepy things that go bump in the night. A bit like my friends, the sharks, in that they prey not only on other species to maintain ecological balance, but they also prey on some of the dark, primal recesses of our minds. They also fascinate us.
In a single cave near New Braunfels, outside San Antonio, Texas, between the months of April and October, resides the largest known colony of bats in the world. Millions of Mexican free-tailed bats migrate to this one spot, known as the Bracken Cave, each year, swelling the total number of bats to as much as 20 to 40 million. Bat Conservation International (BCI), working with Natural Bridge Caverns, has opened the "Bracken Bat Flight" tour to the public for the first time in 2012 to raise awareness of these amazing animals and their importance to our ecosystem during this, the International Year of the Bat. Each night at dusk visitors can view the bats leaving their cave in numbers so dense that they are detected on airport radar.
"Negative myths and misinformation have generated needless fears that have threatened bats and their habitats for centuries," said Nina Fascione, Executive Director of BCI, the Austin-based group which owns and manages Bracken Cave site. "Our goal in opening tours to the public, is to teach more people the truth about bats and the critical need for conservation efforts."
Bats play a pivotal role in managing insect populations, which is key to not only the balance of natural plant ecology, but agricultural interests as well by controlling the number of crop-destroying moths, beetles and other insects. It has been estimated that the Bracken Cave colony consumes as much as 400,000 pounds of insects every night. Additional, bats assist indirectly with plant pollination, much like bees, and the seeds they consume from eating plants helps the spread of seeds through their droppings.
And speaking of bat poop, the Bracken Cave bat's droppings, known as bat guano, has some historical significance as it was used by Confederate soldiers who mined the guano during the Civil War to help manufacture black gunpowder. The nitrogen-rich guano has also been used as a fertilizer.
Conservation awareness of bats is important because many bats are being destroyed by a fungal infection known as the white-nose syndrome, so named because of the white patch that appears on the bats nose and face. It has been running rampant through caves in the eastern United States and researchers and state officials are working hard to get it under control but it has, so far, proven to be a difficult condition to eradicate.
You can learn more about the Bracken Bat Cave tours, managed by Natural Bridge Caverns, by visiting their website at www.brackenbatflight.com. Part of the proceeds generated from ticket sales will go to the protection and conservation of the Bracken Cave site.
Source: PR Newswire
It's coming up on Halloween, so let's talk about bats. There's bats in your hair, bats in your belfry, vampire bats - but the most frightening image is the one held by the bats themselves. Since 2006, over 1 million bats have succumbed to white-nose syndrome: a fungal infection that leaves a fuzzy white patch on the bat's nose but also eats away at their skin and wings. It also disrupts the bat's winter hibernation, causing the bat to expend needed energy to get through the winter months; and with reduced levels of bugs in the winter, many bats starve to death.
The white-nose syndrome has worked its way through many eastern states in the U.S., north and south, being transmitted from bat to bat but also from human contact via recreational cave explorers' footwear, clothing, and gear. However, states are trying to get a handle on the situation and the state of Tennessee has come up with a novel method.
When you think of the state in the U.S. with the most caves, what comes to mind? New Mexico, perhaps, because of the stalactite and stalagmite spires of Carlsbad Caverns. Well, as it turns out, it's Tennessee and they have a vested interest in keeping their cave-dwelling bat population healthy as a means of controlling the bug population, particularly during the warm summer months.
The Nature Conservancy of Tennessee in conjunction with the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and Bat Conservation International, have proposed building an artificial cave, one that is disinfected with anti-fungal medication. Bats will frequently change locations, so it's not out of 
the realm of possibility that bats would move into the artificial cave, get a dose of medicine lining the walls, and then ultimately move on, leaving the cave for the next group of bats. Over time, it is hoped this would begin to stem the tide of the spread of white-nose syndrome.
The Chattanooga-based website, Nooga.com, quoted Cory Holliday, program director for The Nature Conservancy of Tennessee, as saying, “The fungus is really susceptible to a lot of things, such as heat and anti-fungal agents, but you can’t do what needs to be done in a natural cave setting because it would destroy other cave life forms, as well,” says Holliday. “This artificial cave is a pilot project, but if it works we are hopeful that we can build a lot of these things.”The organizations involved are continuing to pull together the $300,000 needed to build this pilot project but they hope to begin construction soon, even before it is fully funded, as they see the situation as being a most dire and immediate threat.
According to Nooga.com, "Bats rank among our country’s most endangered wildlife, with seven in danger of becoming extinct in the United States alone. Their populations are declining as a result of habitat destruction (deforestation, cave flooding, vandalism, commercialization of caves), cave exploration disturbances, pesticide use, and 'pest control' efforts. Bats also collide with wind-energy turbines; bat fatalities have been documented at nearly every wind facility in North America."
So, bats have enough problems to deal with; no need to add a fatal fungus to the list. It has been estimated that the bats' ability to act as a flying pest-control service - pests that would devour agriculture - saves the U.S. agricultural industry as much $3.7 billion to as much as $53 billion annually. That's billion with a "B".
Cory Holliday said, “I do have hope for the bats; however, it is very distressing to go to white-nose syndrome sites and see bats that are dead or bats missing from caves where they should be. At the same time, it also drives me come up with strategies to solve this problem.”
This Halloween, the bats deserve all the treats - with no tricks - that they can handle.
To learn more about bats, check out Bat Conservation International.
To learn more about the proposed Tennessee artificial bat cave, visit The Nature Conservancy of Tennessee.
Halloween's approaching and for those who celebrate "All Hallowed Eve" there's candy, costumes, and images of all things spooky - like zombies, witches, and bats. What would the world be like without those things that go bump in the night? Well, we could do without the zombies, I think. And perhaps witches, both the green Wizard of Oz kind and the ones running for political office.
Then there's bats. What would the world be without bats? As it turns out, it would be a world nearly overrun with bugs. Bats are one of the planet's great equalizers, feeding on insects and helping to keep the populations in balance. While not exactly an "apex predator" like sharks, bats serve a very similar role. Sharks and other large predators that reside at the top of the predator-prey pyramid are kept in check by a slow reproductive rate. Not so for the bat, but then it's feeding on insects that can number in the millions.
So, bats, those spooky little critters of Dracula movie fame that can congregate in caves by the thousands and make us run for cover lest we get one in our hair, are actually very important to maintaining a healthy ecosystem.
But in the eastern United States, parts of Canada, and even France, we are losing vast numbers of bats to a disease: white-nose syndrome. This syndrome manifests itself as patches of white fungus on the nose and wings of the bat. There are several suspected fungi thought to be possibly involved, although Geomyces destructans is considered the most likely culprit. It is a cold-temperature fungus that can flourish in the caves that bats inhabit. The white-nose syndrome disrupts the bats normal winter hibernation cycle and produces behaviors, like flying, that can lead to the bat's death, often from starvation (due to a combination of excessive activity combined with the winter's lack of food).
No more ugly little bats. Big deal, right? So what if there's a few more insects, right? We'll just use a rolled up newspaper or get out the bug zapper. Oh, were it that simple.
Actually, the loss of bats in the northeast all the way to the Mississippi poses a tremendous economic threat to agriculture, as bats act as a very important insecticide control agent. Without bats, insects would ravage more crops, more pesticides would have to be used (with their own inherent problems), and food prices would soar. The timber industry would also be effected.
Scientists who have been studying the condition are not exactly sure as to how it is transmitted over such a wide area. To rule out any human involvement, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has strictly limited access to known caves where large number of bats live. But the condition appears to be continuing to spread, having first been reported in 2006 and now affecting 9 different bat species. Research has found that the fungus reacts to some human anti-fungal treatments but how those can be applied practically has yet to be determined.
The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) is running a campaign to get the attention of U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar to devote serious effort to the issue. Whatever initiatives and small cost that might be required (CBD suggested $10 million), that would easily be offset by the multi-million dollar savings to agriculture and the consumer.
Trick or treat. Looks like it's a trick for the bat this year.
Support the Center for Biological Diversity's petition campaign to save U.S. bats.
Here's some interesting news items from the Center of Biological Diversity (CBD). This group is making more and more of an impression in the state and federal political hallways because they are not afraid to go for the judiciary jugular when necessary and initiate legal action on behalf of endangered animals and ecosystems. And they get results!
U.S. Jaguar Court Hearing
Exactly three weeks after the death of Macho B, the last known jaguar in the United States, this Monday a federal court heard oral arguments in the Center for Biological Diversity's bid to win a federal recovery plan and protected habitat areas for the endangered species. The hearing went very well. The judge peppered the government lawyer with difficult questions and clearly was skeptical of the agency's changing litany of arguments.
Though jaguars were declared endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 1997 -- thanks to another Center lawsuit -- the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has done nothing to recover the species or protect its habitat. In a cruel irony, the agency argues that it doesn't need to protect the jaguar because it's too endangered. That's right -- because the great cat's U.S. range has shrunk to near nothing, the agency argues it's too small to protect. Presumably, if the jaguar were less endangered, it would receive more protection?
Real Protection for False Killer Whale
Seeking an end to the slaughter of false killer whales in Hawaii, last week the Center for Biological Diversity, Earthjustice, and allies sued the National Marine Fisheries Service over its failure to protect the rare marine mammal from the state's longline fishery. For nearly a decade, false killer whales -- actually large members of the dolphin family -- have been getting hooked and entangled by Hawaii's longline fleet, dying at rates far beyond what the population, which numbers at only about 500, can sustain. The Marine Mammal Protection Act requires the Fisheries Service to try to eliminate these deaths, yet even after a 2004 Earthjustice lawsuit by the Center and allies -- when the Hawaii-based fishery was ominously classified as "Category 1" due to its excessive killings of false killer whales -- the agency failed to act on the mammals' behalf.
San Francisco Bay-Delta Fish Protection
While the state of California is moving (slowly) toward safeguarding two of the San Francisco Bay-Delta's most imperiled fish, the longfin and delta smelt, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has stalled on responding to petitions for protection -- so this week, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Bay Institute filed a notice of intent to sue. In 2007, the Center and allies petitioned the federal government and California to protect the longfin smelt, but the Bush administration didn't make a decision on protection by its August deadline. Way back in 2006, the Center petitioned to upgrade the delta smelt's federal and state Endangered Species Act status from threatened to endangered -- but 23 months after a decision was due, the feds still haven't responded. Luckily, California has been a bit more proactive, designating both fish as candidates for greater protections. But meanwhile, thanks to degraded conditions in the Bay-Delta caused by water diversions, pollution, and introduced species, both the delta smelt and the Bay-Delta population of the longfin smelt are fading fast.
The "smeltdown in the Delta" -- as the extinction trajectory of Bay-Delta smelts is known -- is on fast-forward, but despite court orders to clean up their act, federal and state water agencies are still mismanaging California's largest and most important estuary.
And here's an odd one . . .
Bat Blasts Off as Space-shuttle Stowaway
A small, daring free-tailed bat made one giant leap for batkind this month while clinging to the external fuel tank of the space shuttle Discovery -- and holding on for dear life even after liftoff. It's highly unlikely that the bat made it into space -- since the shuttle accelerates from zero to 100 miles per hour in 10 seconds after takeoff -- but in the photo of Discovery clearing the launch tower, the tiny creature is definitely visible on the side of the tank. Though the flight was probably fatal, the bat has made history and will live on in legend.
Unfortunately, even as we mourn the loss of the first "space bat," bats across the Northeast are experiencing an even scarier and not-at-all-entertaining demise thanks to the mysterious, deadly, and rapidly spreading bat disease known as white-nose syndrome. The Center is working to protect bats from all threats in the face of the devastating sickness, which just this month was confirmed to have spread to West Virginia.
You can learn more about these at the Center for Biological Diversity web site. Click here.
