Image source: Publicbroadcasting.net
Recently, I started volunteering to help study bats in New York State. They’re fascinating. They’re the only mammals that fly. They use their ears to hunt at night. Because of their tricky habitat and nocturnal nature, there is a whole lot we don’t know about their behavior. In fact, they are one of the world’s least-studied mammals. (Caveat: we’re talking living mammals and not counting the giant rat recently found in the crater of Mount Bosavi in Papua New Guinea.) My interest in bats has only increased as they’ve been hit with an unprecedented and alarmingly devastating disease: white nose syndrome.
Image source: Whitenosebats.wordpress.com
White nose emerged back in 2006. At first, scientists were stumped. Bats were acting strangely—flying during the day, roosting in weird parts of the cave—and they seemed to have some strange white fungus growing on their faces and wings. It wasn’t at all clear what was causing the illness and erratic behavior. They didn’t think it was the fungus, but nothing else made sense either. By 2008 the bats were dying in huge numbers. Today in New York the little brown bat (Myotis lucifigus) has been reduced by 90 percent while northern long-eared bats (Myotis septentrionalis) have lost 98 percent. Eventually scientists determined that the deaths were caused by the fungus Geomyces destructans: a cold-loving fungus that disturbs the bats during hibernation, causing them to rouse early and often to use up their fat stores before their insect food returns in the Spring.
A northern long-eared bat in flight:
Image source: Discoverlife.org
Bats eat 50-75 percent of their own body weight in insects in a single night. That’s an ecologically friendly pesticide—nature’s own deet. I shudder to think of the blood suckers this summer will bring… or the summer after that. Until now, we’ve lived in blissful ignorance of the importance of our flying bretheren. I think that’s about to change. I feel kind of guilty making this about us—I want you all to be concerned about the bats for the bat’s sake—but emphasizing the human impact of the bat die-off illustrates how important wildlife volunteering is for more than just the wildlife. I’ll write more on this issue in tomorrow’s post.
I bring this local volunteering project up here because, as a volunteer experience, I can’t think of a more important cause than an ecological crisis in my own backyard. So often we look abroad to find volunteer opportunities when we could be making a difference every day at home. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge advocate for volunteer travel for a multiplicity of reasons, but I’m also an advocate for looking locally. Additionally, I’m writing this for volunteers from outside the United States (this is the worldwide web after all). It occurs to me that they may find my backyard just as exotic as I find theirs. Learn more about white nose and what you can do to help at New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation, The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Geological Survey.