For Immediate Release, January 17, 2012
Contact: Mollie Matteson, (802) 318-1487
Scientists Estimate Up to 6.7 Million Bats Dead From Fast-spreading Disease
WASHINGTON A mysterious, fast-moving disease
has now killed as many as 6.7 million bats in
North America over the past six years, according
to an estimate released today by bat biologists.
The new estimate is dramatically higher than the
previous one, dating from 2009, that white-nose
syndrome had killed 1 million bats on the
continent. The disease was first discovered in
upstate New York in 2006 and has spread from
Nova Scotia to Tennessee, infecting bat colonies
in 16 states and four provinces.
This number confirms what people working on
white-nose syndrome have known for a long time
that bats are dying in frighteningly huge
numbers and several species are hurtling toward
the black hole of extinction, said Mollie
Matteson with the Center for Biological
Diversity, which has filed several petitions to
save bats and stem the spread of the disease.
We have to move fast if were going to avoid a
complete catastrophe for Americas bats.
The new mortality estimate which ranges from
5.7 million to 6.7 million was agreed upon by
biologists who met last week at the Northeast
Bat Working Groups annual meeting in
Pennsylvania, one of the states hit hardest by
the bat die-off. The grim figure follows recent
news that a few surviving bats were confirmed in
Vermont this past summer a discovery that had
buoyed hopes that some individuals may have
resistance to the devastating disease, meaning
they could possibly form the nucleus of a future
recovery effort. Overall populations of affected
bat species in places like Vermont, New York,
Pennsylvania and other parts of the Northeast
are down 70 percent to 98 percent since 2006,
which also makes the populations more vulnerable
to other threats, such as habitat loss, human
persecution and environmental contaminants.
The outbreak is the worst wildlife disease
epidemic in North Americas history. Congress
recently directed the Department of the Interior
to allot $4 million for research and management of the disease.
Americas bats are in the throes of an
unprecedented crisis and some species face the
very real prospect of extinction, Matteson
said. While its heartening to see some money
allocated for white-nose syndrome, todays new
mortality estimates are a wake-up call that we need to do more, and fast.
White-nose syndrome has affected six bat species
so far; it kills them during their hibernation
period, when they occupy caves and mines in a
state of suspended animation. The affected
bats are insect eaters; their hibernation is a
response to a lack of prey available during the
winter months. The loss of so many bug-eating
bats has likely had an impact on insect
populations, including those that are pests on
crops. Scientists have estimated that bats save
farmers between $3.7 billion and $53 billion per
year on pesticides that did not have to be used
on crops like corn, cotton, vegetables and fruit
because of the help bats give. Since the bat
disease has only shown up in the Midwest and
South in the last couple of years, the full
effects of declining bat numbers on regions more
strongly dominated by agriculture than the
Northeast may take some time to show up.
The South and Midwest contain some of the
largest and most diverse bat colonies in the
world. Already one federally endangered bat has
been hit by the disease; the Indiana bat has
declined by 70 percent in the Northeast since
2006, though it had been on an upward trajectory
in that region before the onset of the disease.
Scientists fear that as white-nose syndrome
spreads in the Midwest, the species core range,
the total population of Indiana bats could
plummet. Other bat species are at risk too, and
three are currently under review by the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service for addition to the
endangered species list due to the threat posed by white-nose syndrome.
For more information, go to SaveOurBats.org.
###
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~~~~~~~~~
Mollie Matteson, M.S.
Conservation Advocate
Center for Biological Diversity
Northeast Field Office
PO Box 188
Richmond, VT 05477
802-434-2388 (office)
802-318-1487 (cell)
<mailto:[email protected]>[email protected]
www.biologicaldiversity.org
