Bats Are Recovering In A Big Way After Decimation By White-Nose Syndrome: Numbers Grow For The 3Rd Year

Bats Are Recovering In A Big Way After Decimation By White-Nose Syndrome: Numbers Grow For The 3Rd Year

Bats Are Recovering In A Big Way After Decimation By White-Nose Syndrome: Numbers Grow For The 3Rd Year Little brown bats hibernating – courtesy of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources In a positive development for a maligned animal, cave-roosting bat populations in Wisconsin are recovering from a fungal epidemic. Wildlife authorities are reporting that for the third year in a row, the state’s bat populations seem to be rising. Numbers of little brown bats, big brown bats, tricolored bats, and northern long-eared bats are estimated via citizen scientist-led surveys, and each year the base estimates collected through sightings are going up. Introduced to these shores by what were likely cave explorers from Europe, the humidity-loving fungus Psuedogymnoascus destuctans was having deadly effects on cave bats east of the Rockies. Bats are important pollinators for many native species, and their hunting of flying insects can only be a good thing as tropical mosquito-born diseases are be…