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| Photo Credit: AP. |
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Federal officials announced plans Tuesday to list the tricolored bat as endangered — the second U.S. bat species recommended for the designation this year as a fungal disease ravages their populations.
The U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service in March proposed reclassifying the northern
long-eared bat from threatened to endangered as it reached the brink of
extinction. The northern long-eared and the tricolored are among a dozen North
American bats afflicted by white-nose syndrome, which disrupts their crucial
winter hibernation.
“White-nose syndrome is decimating hibernating
bat species like the tricolored bat at unprecedented rates,” said Martha
Williams, the agency director. “Bats play such an important role in ensuring a
healthy ecosystem. The service is deeply committed to continuing our vital
research and collaborative efforts with partners to mitigate further impacts
and recover tricolored bat populations.”
Bats give an
estimated $3 billion boost to the U.S. farm economy yearly through pest control
and pollinating crops, the government says.
White-nose
syndrome has caused a 90% decline of tricolored bats since the disease made its
first U.S. appearance in New York in 2006. Among the smallest bats in North
America, they’re named for the three distinctive shades of their
brownish-yellow hair.
Their
historic range includes 39 states east of the Rocky Mountains and four Canadian
provinces from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, plus sections of eastern
Mexico and Central America.
The disease
resembles white fuzz on bats’ muzzles and wings. It causes them to wake from
hibernation and search for food before spring, leading to dehydration and
starvation. They sometimes
The fungus
causing the sickness thrives in the kinds of cold, damp spots ideal for bat
hibernation: abandoned mines, caves and tunnels.
The rest of
the year, tricolored bats roost among leaf clusters in trees and slip out at
dusk to catch insects such as flies, moths and beetles.
Their sharp
drop-off makes the bats more vulnerable to other threats worsened by
temperature and precipitation changes linked to global warming, including
collisions with wind turbines, the Fish and Wildlife Service said.
When adding
a species to the endangered or threatened list, officials often identify
“critical habitat” areas where they can be protected. But the agency decided
against that for the tricolored bat because forest habitat loss isn’t a primary
cause of its slump. And publicly identifying places where they roost might
increase danger of vandalism or other damage.
The decision
makes sense because the bats disperse so widely, said Allen Kurta, a biology
professor and bat expert at Eastern Michigan University. They tend to hibernate
alone or with just a few others.
“As long as
we maintain forests to provide adequate forage, they have what they need,”
Kurta said. “It’s the disease that’s really killing them.”
The
nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity petitioned and sued the Fish and
Wildlife Service to make the listing. Will Harlan, a scientist with the
advocacy group, praised the move but said a critical habitat designation is
essential to prevent logging of mature and old-growth forests where the bats
roost and forage.
“These bats
urgently need their homes protected to stop them from going extinct,” Harlan
said.
The
endangered listing would prompt the Fish and Wildlife Service to work with
industry, landowners and others on ways to limit harm.
More than
150 government agencies, tribes and nonprofits are researching how to stop
white-nose syndrome and help bats recover, the service said. They are
monitoring the disease’s spread and effects while testing potential treatments.
A fix
doesn’t appear close, said Kurta, who attended a meeting of specialists in
June. Among many ideas are using ultraviolet light and chemicals to kill fungus
spores or limit their spread, he said, but it would be hard to apply them in
the many sites where bats roost and hibernate. Scientists also are trying to
develop a vaccine.
Other
possibilities include drawing insects closer to hibernation areas so bats can
fatten up before winter or using biotechnology to make the pathogen less
harmful, said Jeremy Coleman, national white-nose syndrome coordinator for the
Fish and Wildlife Service.
Most of the
affected bat species give birth to only one or two offspring a year, meaning
their recovery will require many years even if the disease is controlled, Kurta
said.
The Fish and
Wildlife Service will take comments on the proposed listing through Nov. 14 and
conduct a public hearing Oct. 12. It will make a decision within a year of the
plan’s publication in the Federal Register on Wednesday.