During this time of the year, while ghosts and goblins are the talk of the town, bats, the only mammal that truly flies, are both feared and revered, like the tiny tri-colored bat.
The 47 bat species in the U.S. are voracious eaters, but not of humans. In fact, their appetites help humans. Bats eat many kinds of insects, including pests such as mosquitoes and beetles. Just one little brown bat can easily catch 1,000 mosquito-sized insects in an hour; a nursing mother eats approximately 4,500 insects every night.
Bats eat so many bugs that they are a huge help to farmers and save the agricultural industry billions of dollars every year. Because they eat mosquitoes, they likely limit the spread of diseases that mosquitoes carry. Some species in tropical and desert climates feed on nectar and act as powerful pollinators.
Sure, to some people spurred on by movies, television and the popularity of Halloween activities, bats are spooky. But there are people who appreciate the value bats bring to our world and work to ensure their longevity.
Stumphouse Tunnel in South Carolina is one of these places. Susan Loeb, research ecologist with the Forest Service Southern Research Station, and her colleagues have monitored bats in the tunnel for years.
“Tri-colored bats are tiny,” she said. “They weigh less than a quarter of an ounce. And each one of their hairs has three colors on it: yellow, black, and reddish brown.”
But the species is in trouble. “Tri-colored bats are among the species hit hard by white-nose syndrome,” Loeb said.
White-nose syndrome is a fungal disease first detected in the U.S. in 2006 and has since killed millions of bats. In some places, the disease has killed more than 90 percent of tri-colored bats.
More than 300 tri-colored bats spent the winter of 2013-2014 hibernating in the Stumphouse Tunnel. When Loeb and her colleagues counted bats in early 2014, they detected white-nose syndrome on half of the bats they sampled, although none were sick yet. But by 2015, half the bats from the previous year were gone.
“We can only assume they were all dead,” says Loeb. “It was really depressing. That was a tough day.”
In 2016, half the remaining bats were dead.
Today, Loeb is cautiously optimistic. Since 2019, the tri-colored bat population in this tunnel has stabilized, and even slightly increased. Loeb’s recent study also shows that the bats have changed their behavior – a lot of them now roost in a colder part of the tunnel, which they didn’t do before white-nose syndrome hit. This suggests that habitat modifications could help save the species.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently proposed listing tri-colored bats as endangered due to white-nose syndrome. Without monitoring efforts like the ones Loeb has contributed to, no one would know about the apocalyptic losses of this species. In fact, Loeb led the team that developed the North American Bat Monitoring Program, which has provided a lot of data on tri-colored bats and other species. Individuals, universities, national forests, state agencies and many other groups help collect this data.
How else can people help bats? There are a few things that individuals can do:
Help spread the word: Bats belong in our world. Learn and share bat information about how bats are valuable.
Help keep the night sky dark by minimizing artificial light at night.
Choose plants that provide food and shelter to pollinators and reduce the use of pesticides.
When it’s safe to do so, leave standing dead trees for bats to roost in.
If you steward any forested land, consider managing for large oak trees and open forests. Bats don’t like a cluttered midstory.
Leave them alone! Don’t bother bats.
