Bats

There are approximately 966 types of bats living around the globe. Bats live in all most climates other than the North and South Pole: cold, wet, hot and dry.

Bats are nocturnal creatures with "hand wings". Some bats use natural sonar or echolocation to locate or "see" things around them while other types of bats, mostly the fruit eating bats, use their eyes and sense of smell to guide them.

It may surprise you to learn that of all the mammalian species on Earth 25% are bats! In the equatorial region of the planet, bats make up 50% of the types of mammals there.

There are two large categories which bats are divided into, the first being the microbats which each small flying night insects like mosquitoes, up to 1000 per hour, or moths. The second group is the megabats which eat mostly ripe fruits of the rainforest. Only 3 of the close to 1000 micro and megabat species are what people refer to as "vampire bats". There is much myth and hysteria surrounding their reputation. In reality these particular bats have specialized incisors which allow them to painlessly pierce the vein of animal and lap the blood that flows outside. They don't "suck blood" and pose little to no threat to humans.

Both categories of bat, micro and mega, play an integral role in the pollination of plant species around the world. This is especially true for plants whose flowers bloom only at night like the Organ Pipe Cactus, Agaves, Cardon and the Saguaro. The bats that pollinate and feed on the nectar of these desert flowers are specially designed with snouts, long tongues and facial whiskers that reach deep into the heart of these flowers facilitating their pollination and propagation. You can read more about this unique adaptive phenomenon here.

Bats Are Dying

Bats are under threat of endangerment and extinction around the world. This trend is part of a phenomenon called the holocene extinction. In the case of bats in the United States, a veracious mysterious syndrome being called "white nose syndrome" is killing bats by the tens of thousands. According to preeminent biologist Merlin Tuttle, with Bat Conservation International, "white-nose syndrome" is, the most serious threat to American wildlife in the past century."

White nose syndrome is spreading fast. The devastating and mysterious disease was first identified in the winter of 2006 in Albany, NY. Since that time the disease has spread as far South as Southern Virgina and as far North as Canada. Scientists predict that it could reach California in 5 years.

At this time little is known about white nose syndrome, including how to stop it from decimating bat populations.

White nose syndrome gets its name from a telltale signature white power fungus that is usually found on the bodies of bats who have been compromised. Scientists tell us a that the fungus being found on the diseased bats here in the United States is similar to a fungus commonly seen in bat populations in Europe, but in Europe the white fungus doesn't kill the bats.

During cold winter months bats hibernate to conserve energy and body fat. White nose syndrome interrupts the bat's hibernation cycle causing them to wake in the middle of winter. Confused and hungry bats leave their hibernation quarters, or hibernaculum, in search of food, but since it is winter, there are no insects for the bats to eat and they either freeze to death and drop from the sky or starve to death.

No one yet knows if the white fungus alone is responsible for the deaths of bats in America or if the deaths are due to a combination of factors much like what is being seen in the unprecedented rates of death in other pollinator species like bumble bees and honey bees.

In the United States Bats are dying by the tens of thousands from white nose syndrome but in other regions around the world bats are also facing extinction.

In the sub region of southern Africa, 20 species of insect eating bats and 2 species of fruit-eating bats are listed as threatened. Of these 22 species, 9 are listed as either Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable.

In Australia there is a campaign underway to save one particular bat called the Christmas Island Pipistrelle which is listed by the ICUN as critically endangered. Only 12 of these bats are alive today as the result of eradication by invasive species.

In European countries bats are on a sharp decline in the 21st century.

Everywhere, bats are dying. Whether it's pesticides, habitat destruction, invasive species, strange diseases, global warming, it's all killing the bats. This phenomenon is part of the larger biodiversity crisis and global extinction facing the world which some are calling the Holocene Extinction.

What can we do to stop things like this from happening?

If you want to do something small to help the bats, you can try building a bat house for your yard or community. There are books and websites that can show you how and links to some of those resources are provided below. I will be building one myself for my yard. But what can be done about the larger crises facing the our imperiled planet? Answers must be found. Soon.