White Nose Syndrome Seen In Bats In N.h. Hibernaculum

[Brandon-K]

WHITE NOSE SYNDROME SEEN IN BATS IN N.H. HIBERNACULUM
Residents Asked to Report Bats Seen Flying in Winter

CONCORD, N.H. -- More bad news for bats in New England: Though their findings have not yet been confirmed by lab testing, bat researchers monitoring New Hampshire's hibernating bats have found early signs of White Nose Syndrome (WNS) in bats at a mine in the Northwest part of the state. Biologists from N.H. Fish and Game's Nongame and Endangered Wildlife Program and all across the region are involved in tracking WNS, which was discovered just two years ago and appears to be nearly always fatal to bats.

During their surveys of winter hibernacula (hibernating places, typically caves and mines), researchers took photographs of hibernating bats. In the images from one mine where hundreds of bats hibernate, several bats had the characteristic white fungus on their muzzles. "We don't know whether the cold-loving white fungus is a symptom of WNS or the cause," said Emily Brunkhurst, biologist with the Nongame Program. "We also don't know exactly how the syndrome spreads," she added, "but we do know that the white fungus is the first sign that it has arrived. In other hibernacula, when the white fungus has been seen, it's only a matter of time before a high percentage of the bats are affected. The fungus spreads from their faces to their wings and tails, their behavior changes, they use up their stores of body fat and get very skinny. And they die."

One possible sign of WNS is bats flying in winter. "Bats are very small, delicate creatures, and they need to hibernate for several months in a place where they're protected from the worst cold weather," Brunkhurst said. "When they leave hibernation in January or February, that's a really bad sign, and a likely indicator of WNS. They won't have the fat reserves or energy to make it to spring if they leave the protection of a cave or mine so early in the year, and they'll waste the little energy they have fruitlessly searching for insects that aren't here yet."

N.H. Fish and Game has teamed up with Vermont Fish and Wildlife to collect information on sick bats. If you find a bat flying outside this winter, or clinging to the outside of a building, or dead outside, report it on the online reporting form hosted on the Vermont Fish and Wildlife website: Vermont Fish & Wildlife.

If you have found a dead bat and would like to send it to a laboratory for WNS testing, contact the Nongame and Endangered Wildlife Program at NH Fish and Game at (603) 271-2461 to arrange for transportation. To collect a dead bat, place it in a plastic zipper bag, then in a second zipper bag, and freeze. In the outside bag, place a note stating where and when the bat was collected, by whom and anything else you observed about the bat. Although White Nose Syndrome is not known to affect humans, bats can transmit other diseases such as rabies, so always take the precaution of wearing thick gloves when handling a bat, whether it is dead or alive. Bats groom the fungus off before flying, so you will not see white fungus on a bat that leaves its hibernaculum.

There are 8 bat species in New Hampshire. Four species are winter hibernators; many travel to other states to hibernate, since N.H. has very few natural caves and only a handful of mines.

Brunkhurst says that WNS seems to have the biggest impact on the little brown bat, so our most common bat is also the one most at risk. "The little brown bat is the bat we often see cruising over a pond, eating insects," she said. The N.H. state-endangered Eastern small-footed bat has also been affected by WNS in other states, as have the other hibernating bat species, Eastern pipistrelle and Northern long-eared bats. In nearby states, the federally endangered Indiana bat is also in grave danger, while the new sites in West Virginia also threaten the endangered Virginia long-eared bat.

In New Hampshire, bats use old mines for hibernating. Some mines can be easy to survey, with straight tunnels into the rock, but the largest is a multilevel mine with convoluted passages requiring professional climbing gear. Often, the floor of the mine is full of water. The bats hang from the ceiling, in singles or small clusters. Brunkhurst, who was a member of the survey team that discovered the signs of WNS, described her experience: "Your headlamp makes the bats glow, because they are often covered with tiny droplets of water. High humidity is critical to keep the bats from dehydrating in the long winter months. Clustered bats are squished tightly together to share the warmth." Brunkhurst said that the researchers are collecting various information, including the number of bats and the temperature and humidity at several locations, plus other data as requested for regional surveys. "This year we are collecting soil samples to see whether the fungus is present in the
environment," Brunkhurst noted. "If we find any bats with fungus growing on them, we take a sample of the fungus. We'll also collect any dead bats to send to the labs."

Bats reproduce slowly, usually with just one "pup" a year per female, so a major population loss can become a crisis in a very short timeframe. Brunkhurst said, "Bats eat thousands of pounds of agricultural pests and nuisance species like mosquitoes every summer, so it's shocking to think about the ways changes to the bat population could ripple through the ecosystem, not to mention the human food chain."

After its discovery in four caves in New York in the winter of 2006-2007, fast-moving WNS was discovered at sites in Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. This winter, the syndrome has also surfaced in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. In West Virginia, the affected sites are near the largest and most important hibernacula in the east.

More than a dozen research labs are currently studying the syndrome and trying to learn more about what it is, what's causing it, how it is transmitted and how to prevent it. Transmission of WNS may be bat-to-bat, or it's possible that spelunkers or cavers are carrying WNS on their equipment. As a safety, footwear, clothing and gear worn or used in one cave or mine should not be used in another. The lab research has focused on the possible causes of WNS. So far there have been no viruses, bacteria or other pathogens found, but the fungus has been identified. Contaminants, the amount and quality of fall feeding, and the rate at which energy stored as fat is used up are all being studied.

Find more information and links on the N.H. Fish and Game Department's Nongame and Endangered Wildlife Program website at Bats of New Hampshire - N.H. Fish and Game.

[oddfish]

Yes, thanks to a cute brown bat in our house last summer I know a bit about them, along with the entire family, including the 4 cats being treated for rabies. Next time the bat goes down no matter how cute it is.

Oddfish

On the bright side I have no fear of raccoons any more, they are just striped footballs to me.

[Skunch the Skunk]

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[oddfish]

Wrong stripes!, but if you chase me you get the same, stank boy!

Oddfish

[marshman]

I saw that on tv. That's pretty sad. Just think of how many more mosquitoes
we will have to deal with. A few years back we came home and found one circling the dining room. I went out to the shed and grabbed a tennis racket and gave it the John MaEnroe special. Missed on the first 2 swings but the third times a charm.

[Skunch the Skunk]

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[Coalman]

This is not good news.

I am extremely interested in the bat houses they have for sale at the feed store. We have bats all summer around our yard. They are homegrown mosquito control.

[Brandon-K]

WHITE NOSE SYNDROME AFFECTS N.H. BATS THIS SUMMER; PETERBOROUGH COLONY DECIMATED

CONCORD, N.H. -- The deadly White Nose Syndrome (WNS), a new disease affecting hibernating bats throughout the Northeast, appears to be affecting bats in New Hampshire this summer. Hundreds of thousands of bats have died over the past three years in states from New Hampshire to Virginia. A bat colony in Peterborough has sustained a catastrophic level of deaths, and reports have come in from several New Hampshire towns about young bats dying.

Biologists from N.H. Fish and Game's Nongame and Endangered Wildlife Program and all across the region are involved in tracking WNS, which was discovered just three years ago and appears to be nearly always fatal to bats. Affected bats usually have a characteristic white fungus on their muzzles, wings and tails, but only in the caves and mines (hibernacula) where they spend the winter. The bats use up their stores of body fat, which is all they have to survive the winter, become emaciated and die. Hundreds of thousands of little brown bats and five other species have died, from New Hampshire to Virginia.

"Since so many bats have died, we expected to see declines in some maternity colonies," said New Hampshire Fish and Game wildlife biologist Emily Brunkhurst, "But the other effects we have seen have been surprising and sad."

Dr. Scott Reynolds has been studying a maternity colony of little brown bats in Peterborough, N.H., for over 15 years. It is the longest-running study of these colonies, where female bats gather under the roof of a barn or attic, where it is nice and hot, to bear and raise their pups. Each female normally gives birth to just one baby. After banding more than 4,000 bats over the years, and despite knowing that some of his banded bats were found dead of WNS in hibernacula in Vermont, Reynolds was still shocked to discover how WNS had devastated this colony. "I expected a decline, as there were 20% fewer last year than there had been before," he said, "but this year there are almost no bats; the colony is functionally gone."

The Peterborough colony has averaged about 2,000 bats over the last 15 years, and has been in existence for at least 40 years. There are now fewer than 100 bats left, and they have lost the advantages of a big colony. "Bats save a lot in energy by clustering together, passively maintaining a high body temperature," says Reynolds. "Now they need to spend a great deal of their energy budget on heat, and thus have a reduced growth rate. This spring the pups seemed to be healthy and growing fast, but they have now all disappeared. We don't know what happened."

Brunkhurst said, "When I heard of the loss of the Peterborough colony, I was shocked. We all understood that thousands of bats had died, and that the possibility was there that we would see great losses, but this just brings home the possibility, or maybe likelihood, that our summer skies will soon be fairly devoid of bats." Already Fish and Game has received many calls and emails that ponds once busy with bat activity, and barns where bats had traditionally roosted, are empty.

One surprising effect is that female little brown and big brown bats are abandoning their pups in greater numbers than ever before, according to Brunkhurst. One barn in Amherst, N.H., had over 16 babies come down, and, although 13 were rescued and taken to a wildlife rehabilitator, all died. This is also true of barns in Durham, Epsom, and Dunbarton, N.H., as well as colonies in Vermont, Connecticut, Virginia and other states. Susi von Oettingen, biologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) said, "I'm puzzled by the unexpected pup mortality. Our preliminary observation is that the pups are emaciated, but we do not know if this is an effect of WNS or of the wet weather or some unknown cause." Dr. Reynolds plans to look at his long-term data to predict what mortality such a wet spring would be expected to produce, and compare it with the actual numbers to see what the effect of WNS might be.

New Hampshire. Fish and Game has teamed up with Vermont Fish and Wildlife to collect information on sick bats. If you find a dead bat this summer, or notice the absence of bats where they typically are seen in abundance, report it on the online reporting form hosted on the Vermont Fish and Wildlife website: Vermont Fish & Wildlife.

Researchers have been working hard to learn as much as possible about this disease, but there has not been enough funding to get everything done. So far they have discovered that the fungus on the bats is new to science. It has been aptly named Geomyces destructans by its discoverer, Dr. David Blehert and his colleagues. It is not known whether the fungus causes the bats to become emaciated during the winter, or if something else is killing the bats.

Recent funding through the USFWS State Wildlife Grant Program has provided some resources for states to respond to this problem through monitoring of bats, and research and management of bat habitat, especially the hibernacula. Response to a Nongame Program special appeal last fall provided donations that funded surveys of caves and mines in New Hampshire for WNS last winter. A new USFWS grant will fund research into mortality, disease spread and containment or population effects of WNS. Some possible projects include discovering if known treatments for fungal diseases can control WNS, finding ways to build resistance to the disease in bats, understanding the population effects of WNS and searching for causes other than the fungus. Several New Hampshire bat researchers are involved in projects to help in learning more about and controlling WNS. Congress has recently taken an interest in this fast-moving problem, but there has been no additional funding forthcoming as yet.

Meanwhile, one of the traditional sights of summer may be less visible in New Hampshire this year. "The little brown bat - the one most affected -- is the bat we often see cruising over a pond, eating insects," Brunkhurst said, "Bats eat thousands of pounds of agricultural pests and nuisance species like mosquitoes every summer. It is very alarming to think how this huge drop in the bat population will ripple through the ecosystem, and possibly affect our food production and timber industries."

Find more information and links on the N.H. Fish and Game Department's Nongame and Endangered Wildlife Program website at Bats of New Hampshire - N.H. Fish and Game.

[Coalman]

We usually have one to two bats hunting nightly at our house. This year I have seen two fly by's and only one night where a bat was hunting.

I am afraid the seacoast bats may be trouble.

How about you? Bat sightings?

[Bubba9ner]

The bats are gone from my neck of the woods . This is not good. Normally, bats are out every night eating and flying around. I have seen ZERO this year. There is something seriously wrong here. I wish they could put two and two together to figure out this problem.

No crickets. no swallows, no whiporwills, no dragon flies to speak of. All black fly/mosquito eaters. there is plenty of food, I believe it is tainted.