Mylea Bayless: It’s causing massive amounts of disturbing mortality – upwards of 95 to 100 percent at some hibernation sites.
Biologist Mylea Bayless is talking about bats and about a fungus that’s affecting them. It’s called white nose syndrome. Mylea is with Bat Conservation International in Austin, Texas, which has the largest urban bat colony in the U.S. She said white nose syndrome has killed thousands of bats in the northeastern U.S. over the past several years.
Mylea Bayless:: If you talk to people in New York, they don’t see bats in their streetlights anymore.
And now, she said, the fungus is expected to spread to the American South.
Mylea Bayless: We don’t really have any good idea to stop it or slow the spread. You can’t really apply a broad-scale fungicide to a cave ecosystem because you’ll completely destroy all the processes that occur in the cave.
She said bats might face extinction due to this fungus. Meanwhile, she said, funds for studying the fungus and stopping it are limited.
Mylea Bayless: We really can’t move forward with the limited resources the state and federal agencies have.
She said the situation is important because bats eat insects over agricultural fields. A decline of bats could adversely affect agriculture.
Mylea Bayless: Anytime you take a top predator out of the ecosystem and a top predator that is a primary consumer of insect pests, we’re probably going to see those impacts in agriculture.
Bat experts have estimated they’ll need over $10 million to coordinate a national white nose syndrome research program. Bayless said they are hoping emergency U.S. Federal funding. She spoke of the mechanics of bat decline due to white nose syndrome:
Mylea Bayless: Bats are starving in hibernation but we don’t understand clearly whether the fungus is the root cause of the mortality or whether it’s a secondary mechanism taking advantage of the opportunity and then growing on the bats.
On June 4, 2009 there was a U.S. Congressional hearing about the bat epidemic.
Mylea Bayless: The U.S. Congress and Senate both had hearings investigating the cause and possible effects of white nose syndrome and there was a lot of discussion about what the cost would be for a federal response. And when you put together a coordinated broad federal response to an emerging pathogen it can be very costly because you are coordinating multiple federal agencies and multiple state agencies and there are so many things involved from surveillance and monitoring to mitigating the effects of the disease, and implementing actions to try to slow the spread. They aren’t simple answers.
She concluded with the effects she expects to see shortly.
Mylea Bayless: Along with population declines in bats will come other kinds of ecological consequences in insect abundance and crop damage, and we’ll see very shortly an economic problem as well.
Bats are indeed incredible creatures. Five years back I spent three nights at a cave in Death Valley, along the Cotton Wood Canyon trail. It is a dry wash trail following a sandstone slot canyon up to higher elevation. Every evening, the bats would literally swarm out of the cave over our heads in search of insects. It was exciting to watch them fly in seemingly perfect synchronization leaving the cave. I took some cool photographs of them against colorful vertical sand stone canyon walls. It it is sad to think that they are in peril. I’m hoping the very dry environment will serve as a boundary for this fungal infection and spare our local species. Given that winter temperatures rarely drop below 55 deg. F, I doubt they are a hibernating. Any projections on expected impact on desert Southwest species?
We are cautiosly optimistic that non-hibernating bat species will fare better. But even in the Southwestern U.S. many bats hibernate in high elevation caves, mines, and rock shelters – thus potentially posing some risk. Only time will tell unfortunately. Thanks for your concern. With everything else happening right now – we need decision makers in Washington and in our state and federal wildife agencies to support WNS research. Spread the word if you can.
I have a population of bats that lived in and by my barn, I am in the process of sealing the barn but I would like to provide other shelter for the bats, I live in Westfield MA and I would like to know my options, such as building bat boxes and the like, there is a stand of Pines I think that would be perfect. I was fortunate this year that they chose to roost between the chimney and the barn instead of inside, I need to seal the barn but also want to provide for the bats. Any information or recommendations would be appreciated as I understand the delicate balance in nature. I do have some good news on the bees, we planted sunflowers and wildflower patches and have attracted healthy numbers of bees.
Mylea,
If a person wants to donate money to your study of the White Nose Syndrome, how would they do that?
Thanks to this story, we will be accepting donations to BCI at our Halloween Party this year. I hope others follow suit!
I think it is kind of exaggerating to say that bat will face extinction due to the white nose syndrome. The fungus may have killed some bats, but this is a process of selection–it select some certain kind of bats that can immune from the fungus.
Instead of focusing on the impact of the white nose syndrome, I¡¯m more interesting in the insects which are the food source of bats and birds. With so many chemicals used in agriculture, including herbicide and fertilizer, the food source of the bat may have been contaminated. Perhaps this is more serious than the disease.
On the other hand, the use of insecticide leads to the sharp decrease of bats’ food, which may put the bat to the edge of extinction.
In natural situation, if the colony of bats decreases, the colony of insects stands a higher chance to recovery, which will contribute to the recovery of the bats. However, the human’s activities have interrupted the balance of the ecosystem. Consequently, both the number of the insects and bats are decreasing.
from a student of China
In response to the comments in this string. Information about WNS, bat houses, and bat exclusions can be found at http://www.batcon.org.
Also- I agree with Yarser- all bats will not face extinction, but the entire populations of several endangered species in the eastern U.S. (namely Indiana bats, gray bats, Virginia big-eared bats, and Ozark big-eared bats) hibernate if very few caves which are – unfortunately – in the direct path of WNS. These species are definitely at risk. The details of this discussion during the interview did not make it into the edited version.
Also- Yarser\’s point about pesticides, herbicides, and the insect food base are exactly right. These are under investigation by lead researchers. Nothing in this arena has been conclusive – and so far the only consistent finding among WNS affected bats is the G.destructas fungus (newly described to science). But – until we have definitive proof that WNS is indeed CAUSED by the fungus…we\’ll keep looking.
Thanks everybody for your interest.