Little Brown Bats

First we had large numbers of honey bees dying, then it was frogs, birds (particularly the American Crow) and now Little Brown Bats.

In January 2007 thousands of Little Brown Bats were found dead or dying in Albany, New York State from what is being called White Noise Syndrome because their noses looked like they were dipped in sugar.

This picture was taken by Al Hicks, from the U.S Dept of Fish and Wild Life Services in New York who was the first person to discuss the calamity. In one year it has spread throughout New York, Massachusetts and Vermont. The disease has a mortality rate of 90-95%. This has resulted in two-thirds of Massachusetts Little Brown bats dying with over half a million dead in New England and New York. Fortunately it has not spread to the Big Brown Bat (pictured below) or any of the bats that migrate such as the Tree Bats.

Litte Brown Bats are between 4.5 and 5.5 inches long and weight between 0.19 to 0.45 ounces. Since these bats only have one baby per year it will take a long time to replenish the population.

The white is actual a fungus called Fusarium which is usually associated with plants. But biologists think that this is not the actual cause of their deaths but an opportunistic infection. Whatever is the cause of their illness, bats are being found outside in the middle of winter when they should be hibernating in their caves. When their dead bodies are picked up they are found to be severally emancipated with no body fat at all. For the lucky bats that were picked up my wildlife experts and taken to a sanctuary they were able to recover. So this raises the question: did they burn up the fat too quickly or did they not store enough body fat before they hibernated and if not, why not?

To add to their plight Ravens, truely remarkable birds, have been noticed hanging outside the entrances to the bats’ caves and Raccoons are being bold enough to go inside. There are a couple of ideas. One is that the insects that the Little Browns’ eat have dyed or moved on due to Global Warming another idea is that there is now a new family of pesticides developed for the eradication of West Nile Virus. The other possibility is that in August 2007, the State of Massachusetts for the first time in 16 years conducted aerial spraying for mosquitos using a new pesticide developed for Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE)or West Nile Visus (I don't remember which it is). Needless to say I cannot find what is in this new pestcide.

While many people might not like bats they have their place in the eco system and particularly because they eats lots and lots and lots of agriculutral insects and 20$of our mosquites.

Should you see any bats in your house anywhere, do not attemt to kill them. Call your U.S. Fish and Wild Life Services for they need protecting.