Little Brown Bat in Pennsylvania Now Endangered as 90% Population Succumbs to White-Nose Syndrome

White-nose sickness has claimed 90% of Pennsylvania's little brown bat population. The species is currently considered endangered.

Little Brown Bat Now Endangered in Pennsylvania

Due to the catastrophic effects of a deadly fungal infection affecting bat species in Pennsylvania and around the country, Doug Wentzel, program director at Shaver's Creek Environmental Center in Huntingdon County, has observed bats become considerably fewer at Shaver's Creek during the past ten years.

A powdery white growth on the faces of bats is caused by a fungus, which is speculated to have originated in upstate New York. It initially decimated a colony of hibernating bats in a cave and subsequently spread from bat to bat across the entire country.

The Little Brown Bat, which was formerly the most widespread species of bat in Pennsylvania, is now listed as an endangered species by the state.

The disease, which is presently referred to as White-Nose Syndrome (WNS), has killed more than 90% of bats and destroyed their populations throughout North America, according to reports from Pennsylvania Capital-Star.

Bats lose their ability to fly and hunt as a result of the fungus' gradual breakdown of the delicate skin tissue that lines their wing membranes. Many bats stricken by WNS perish from malnutrition or freeze to death, according to wildlife rehabbers.

In testimony at a 2011 hearing on WNS, Gabriela Chavarria, the US Fish and Wildlife Service director's science advisor, said the organization was "concerned" about the effect the sickness will have on bat populations across the nation.

Currently, according to bat researchers, WNS is to blame for 98-99% of Pennsylvania's Little Brown Bat population decline.

Wentzel acknowledged that the outlook for tiny brown bats is not favorable because there is no known cure for WNS.

The Role of Bats in the Ecosystem

As the Pennsylvania Bat Rescue executive director and a licensed bat rehabilitator, Steph Stronsick is working to inform the public once again about the crucial function that Pennsylvania's nine native species of bats play in the ecosystem.

Stronsick said that multiple species are impacted. Without bats to eat the insects, she added, bug populations might grow unrestrained.

According to Stronsick, there is currently no information on the immediate ecological effects of a declining bat population. However, she warned that an unchecked number of insects could ruin crops and Pennsylvania's $132.5 billion agriculture industry, a number confired by the Deparetment of Agriculture.

Stronsick stated that she is especially concerned about how WNS would spread across migratory bat species as a result of human-caused climate changes.

Conservation

Even in the unlikely event that Little Brown Bat survives WNS, scientists predict that it will take over four hundred years for the population to reach pre-WNS levels. However, that estimate is predicated on the notion that no more ecological catastrophe will jeopardize the existence of the species.

Wentzel is glad to announce that bats are once more residing in the bat boxes installed on the northeast corner of the property, nearly ten years after WNS caused the demise of the bat colony at Shaver's Creek.

According to Wentzel, there are currently about 20 bats living in the boxes.

By growing native plants, using fewer chemical pesticides, and notifying a nearby wildlife rehabilitation facility if they spot an injured bat, people can help their local bat populations, according to Stronsick and Wentzel.

Stronsick emphasized that not all bats had vanished and that saving the colony meant rescuing the people as well, Lehigh Valley High reports.