by Mike Daulton

ecently, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) proposed to protect the tricolored bat (Perimyotis subflavus) as an Endangered species. Bat Conservation International (BCI) fully supports using the full power of the Endangered Species Act to protect the tricolored bat.

Tricolored bats were once the most common bat east of the Rocky Mountains. In days past, you’d often see these bats in their fluttery flight patterns at dusk, darting around treetops and devouring mosquitoes, moths, and other insects. Today, 90% of this species has been decimated due to White-nose Syndrome (WNS), an invasive and frustrating fungus that causes bats to unnaturally rouse from hibernation, which, in turn, depletes necessary body fat for bats to survive cold temperatures.

First discovered in New York caves during the winter of 2006–2007, White-nose Syndrome (WNS) is a lethal bat disease that is rapidly spreading throughout North America. Caused by the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans, WNS affects hibernating bats by making them arouse more frequently, burning through winter fat reserves and leading to premature starvation and death. Infected bats develop a distinctive white fuzz on their muzzles and skin, giving the disease its name.

WNS has killed millions of bats, with several species including the northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis) and the tri-colored bat (Perimyotis subflavus) experiencing declines greater than 90%. However, WNS does not affect all bat species equally and while some may be facing extinction due to WNS (e.g., northern long-eared bat), other hibernating bat species appear to be unaffected by the disease. Scientists are working to learn everything they can about WNS and the fungus that causes it.

WNS has now been confirmed in 38 states and eight Canadian provinces, and researchers have found evidence of the fungus in five additional states including, most recently, Idaho and Colorado.

Student Scholar applications are open starting Oct. 1! If you’re a graduate student looking for funding support for a bat research project, submit your proposal by Oct. 31.

ccording to Dr. Winifred Frick, Bat Conservation International’s (BCI’s) Chief Scientist, using harp traps to survey bat species is somewhat like trick-or-treating: You never know what you’re going to get.

Once the delicate nylon threads of the traps are installed near bat roosts, scientists wait to see which bats are caught. Dr. Frick says scientists are often like children comparing their hauls of Halloween candy. As they gently move the bats in small cloth bags to a nearby processing station where the bats are weighed and measured, DNA samples are collected, and varying species are noted, you might hear scientists quietly noting “one of these” and “three of those” before the bats are released into the night sky.

n a Jamaican hill overlooking the ocean, new development is transforming the landscape. Gorgeous views and a COVID-era desire to get out of big cities like Kingston led to people snapping up countryside land and building homes. This area, in northeast Jamaica near the town of Port Antonio, is a very sought-after area for home building.

However, it is also the site of Stony Hill Cave, the only known maternity roost for the Critically Endangered Jamaican flower bat (Phyllonycteris aphylla).

usty deserved some positive reinforcement—approving words, tasty treats, and a scratch or two behind the ears. Blitz, too, has earned praise and recognition but prefers the reward of fetching a frisbee. These dogs—Dusty, an eight-year-old female Brittany, and Blitz, a five-year-old male red cattle dog—along with their human handler, Julia Nawrocki, are on a mission to collect meaningful data that, ultimately, may save migratory bats from fatal impacts with wind turbines.

EVEN THOUGH DR. ISABELLA MANDL MAY BE AFTER A BAT that has a wingspan longer than a small child is tall, it is no easy feat to catch—or even find—a Livingstone’s fruit bat.

Dr. Mandl, a postdoctoral fellow funded by Bat Conservation International (BCI) at the University of Vienna in Austria, spent two months earlier this year on Anjouan, one of the islands of the Comoros, located between Madagascar and the coast of eastern Africa. Dr. Mandl was in search of a Critically Endangered Livingstone’s fruit bat (Pteropus livingstonii), a large black bat that has a population of around 1,200.

by Kristen Pope

by Shaena Montanari

by Simone Scully

Like all animals, bats depend on water to survive—especially in arid or desert regions. Because they drink while in flight, bats must have open water sources like lakes, ponds, and springs, and in arid regions, they need to be able to drink at least once a night. In addition, the plants that grow around these water sources, called riparian vegetation, are the richest foraging habitat for insectivorous bats and several species rely on the trees that grow around water spots for roosting sites.

In other words, water loss is one of the significant drivers behind bat habitat loss, especially in regions that are already dry.

In north-central Wyoming, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) wanted to learn more about how caves were used by bats. They were working on developing a cave management plan to manage visitation while protecting bats and wildlife, and reducing human-wildlife conflict. To do this, they needed to find out when the bats were using the caves and when they were hibernating.

It wasn’t practical to send someone to sit outside each cave for weeks on end hoping to glimpse a bat. Instead, BLM and Bat Conservation International (BCI) partnered with Wildlife Imaging Systems (WIS), which created a system to automate the task and capture bat activity using cameras and infrared technology.

by Annika S. Hipple

ildlife photographer Chien Lee specializes in documenting the biological diversity of southeast Asia. Originally from California’s Bay Area, but based in northwest Borneo since 1996, he worked in environmental education and conservation before turning to photography full-time.

by Kristen Pope