A Requiem for NH Bats?
By Dave Anderson

The Ecological Role of bats and what is really at stake with WNS

From the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, I’m Dave Anderson with Something Wild…

I can no more imagine hot summer evenings without bats overhead than a summer night sky devoid of all stars….

Now the specter of a regional bat population collapse due to “White Nosed Syndrome” caused by a fungus found in their winter cave hibernacula brings new anxiety to bat watching.

White Nose Syndrome was first detected in New York in 2007 and discovered in the largest known regional winter bat “hibernaculum” at Aeolus Cave, Vermont in 2008. Before WNS, Aeolus had an estimated population as high as 300,000 bats. Since then, numbers plummeted by as much as 90% - a loss of hundreds of thousands of bats. WNS first appeared in New Hampshire in 2009.

Most bats succumb in winter or shortly after emerging from hibernation and before mating in spring. By summer, small groups of males roost in local caves, beneath loose tree bark or on building exteriors. Larger groups of females use hot buildings for summer maternity colonies to raise pups.

Property owners are asked to accommodate bats rather than exclude bats from maternity colony sites in attics, barns or garages. NH Fish and Game is looking for volunteers to complete bat surveys this summer.

EVERYONE should appreciate how important bats are to humans. In New England, bats are the most numerous predators of night flying insects. Bats provide critical ecological services, consuming millions of destructive insect pests including adult moths of defoliating tent caterpillars.

On our Tree Farm, we see fewer bats this summer. It’s becoming a worrisome vigil. We watch one or two flutter over the pasture and sadly ponder what might happen if they too disappear.

 Something Wild is a joint production of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, New Hampshire Audubon, and NHPR. For Something Wild, I’m Dave Anderson.