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Fish and Wildlife Service recommends tricolored bats for endangered species list : NPR


White nose syndrome, a fungus that attacks bats during hibernation, is killing bat populations across North America, including the tricolor bat pictured above.

Darwin Brock / US Fish and Wildlife Service


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Darwin Brock / US Fish and Wildlife Service


White nose syndrome, a fungus that attacks bats during hibernation, is killing bat populations across North America, including the tricolor bat pictured above.

Darwin Brock / US Fish and Wildlife Service

A fungal disease that attacks when bats are in hibernation has brought the tricolor bat to the brink of extinction. Now, the US Fish and Wildlife Service is recommending the addition of the tricolor bat to its list of endangered species in an effort to protect them.

Tricolor bats live in 39 states east of the Rocky Mountains, as well as parts of Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize and Nicaragua.

But white nose syndrome – caused by a fungus that grows on bats living in caves during hibernation – is killing bat populations in North America at an “unprecedented rate,” said Fish and Wildlife Service Director Martha Williams said in a news bulletin.

One of the smallest native species in North America, tricolor bats spend most of the year in forest habitats. However, when winter comes, they seek shelter in caves and mines to hibernate, which is when they are susceptible to disease, FWP says.

The fungus, Pseudogymnoascus destructans, can resemble the white fluff on the wings and snout of a bat, attacking bare skin while the animal is hibernating. According to the FWP White Nose Syndrome Response Team, the fungus makes bats more active when they should hibernate, burning off the little energy they have to survive the winter.

White-nosed syndrome has killed millions of bats across the continent, the FWP said, wiping out 90% to 100% of colonies in some locations. Scientists still don’t know where this fungus came from, but it has been found in 12 out of 47 species live in North America, of which two are currently protected by the Endangered Species Act.

The disease is also ravaging northern long-eared bat populations, which FWP recommend reclassification from threatened to endangered in March last year. The FWP says bats are vital to the healthy functioning of an ecosystem, and they contribute at least $3 billion in pest control and pollination each year.



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