Bats and white nose syndrome

“White nose syndrome” (WNS) may be the last thing on your mind most days. It probably is for most people. However, it is a condition that has been mentioned in the news various times since 2006-2007; if you don’t think about it, you’ve likely heard it once before. It isn’t something that affects humans directly so why should you think about it? You’re probably caught-up on what Becky at work (or school) is gossiping about, how the <insert sports team here> are doing, or how the bills are getting paid. Why would a small flying rodent with a condition such as WNS bother you? 

For starters, bats are amazing creatures, and, in my unpopular personal opinion, can be quite adorable. Regardless of the cute factor, bats are essential for pollination, dispersing seeds, pest control, and biodiversity indicators (Bat Conservation Trust, 2019). Many plants depend partly, or even wholly, on bats to pollinate their flowers and spread seeds which are hugely beneficial for farmers and the ecosystem flora. Bats are also used as an indicator species. This means that the presence or absence of bats, the population size of them, and the species, will show ecologists how a certain area is doing in respect to the bat population or lack thereof. Probably most admirable in the human eye is their ability to control pests. Bats do a fantastic job of eating insects that destroy agricultural crops. In fact, in Brazil, the free-tailed bat has been recognized as an important pest management service in their cotton farming. Bats can also eat so many insects that they drive down the need for pesticide spray, making everyone healthier and happier. A drastic decline in bat populations would show to have far-reaching ecological impacts (Blehert, et al., 2009).

Now that you understand why bats are essential to human life, what is WNS? This has been characterized within hibernating bats and is recognized by the white fungal growth on a bat’s ears, muzzle/nose, and wing membranes (Blehert, et al., 2009). WNS has been linked to a fungus, Psuedogymnoascus destructans, which likely came from Europe (National Park Service, 2017). Side note: This is another demonstration of why people must do all they can from introducing exotic organisms into foreign ecosystems. A hibernating bat reduces their metabolic rate and lowers their body temperature to conserve energy through winter. However, a bat affected by WNS will wake up to warm temperatures more frequently, thus raising their body temperature, moving, using energy, etc., and starve before spring arrives (National Park Service, 2017).

In some figures, hibernation sites have declined by 80-100% since 2006 when WNS was first observed (Bat Conservation Trust, 2019). Sadly, our area of southeastern Minnesota is an area of WNS including Mystery Cave, which was included in an article on MPR as recently as this past March (Gunderson, 2019). In this article, DNR mammologist Gerda Nordquist is quoted as stating, “We were hoping maybe our story would be a little different, but it isn’t. It’s following the trend where [bat populations] decline to very low levels — around 90, sometimes 100% decline in some sites.”

However, there is hope! A 2015 study found that using a strain of Pseudomonas (“good bacteria” naturally occurring on bats) as a one-time spray on the bat ears, nose, and wings helped a bat population have a 50% chance of survival whereas untreated bats had an 8% survival rate (Hoyt, et al., 2015). That’s a huge difference! Although the sample size of this study was fairly low, it opens the door for replication of the study on larger numbers to give us hope on how to combat this condition and keep our bats alive.

You can help prevent the spread by not disturbing bats (especially hibernating bats), be mindful of caves and mines, decontaminate clothing and gear, and report sick or dead bats. If you believe you find dead, or dying, bats with symptoms of WNS, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources hope you will contact them through email or their report line at (888) 345-1730 (DNR, 2019). 

Let’s all do our part and help our fellow earth mates to not only survive, but to thrive!

References

Bat Conservation Trust. (2019). Why bats matter. Retrieved from https://www.bats.org.uk/about-bats/why-bats-matter

Blehert, D., Hicks, A., Behr, M., Meteyer, C., Berlowski-Zier, B., Buckles, E., Coleman, J., Darling, S., Gargas, A., Niver, R., Okoniewski, J., Rudd, R., & Stone, W. (2009). Bat white-nose syndrome: An emerging fungal pathogen? Science, 323(5911), 227.

Department of Natural Resources. (2019). White-nose syndrome and Minnesota’s bats. Retrieved from https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/wns/index.html

Gunderson, D. (2019, March 28). Disease continues to batter Minnesota bat populations. Retrieved from https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/03/28/disease-continues-to-batter-minn-bats

Hoyt, J., Cheng, T., Langwig, K., Lee, M., Frick, W., & Kilpatrick, A. (2015). Bacteria isolated from bats inhibit the growth of Pseudogymnoascus destructans, the causative agent of white-nose syndrome. PLOS ONE, 10(4), e0121329.

National Park Service. (2017, December 8). What is white-nose syndrome? Retrieved from https://www.nps.gov/articles/what-is-white-nose-syndrome.htm

O’Neil, K. (2019, July 15). Spraying bats with ‘good’ bacteria may combat deadly white nose syndrome. Retrieved from https://www.sciencenews.org/article/probiotic-bacteria-spray-bats-deadly-white-nose-syndrome?tgt=nr