At Risk Despite Density
Ilona Campo | May 2018
It was the end of February of my sophomore year at App State and I had signed up with three of my friends to go caving with outdoor programs. It was a few weeks before our trip and I was so excited to go on this unique adventure. However, one by one they started backing out and I ended up alone with a group of other students who also had never been caving. I had no idea what to expect. After our hour and a half drive and a brief lunch we made our decent into Worley’s Cave in Bluff City, Tennessee.
The closest thing to a cave I had been in was Laurel Caverns in Pennsylvania. I assumed this experience would be much different from the popular tourist destination, and I was right. Upon entry of Worley’s Cave, I was immediately mesmerized by the natural structures, the shiny ceilings, and circulating dust illuminated only by our headlights. The cave floor was incredibly slippery and it was difficult to walk even five feet without falling. If we were lucky enough to look up at the right moment we could see clusters of hibernating bats. Since we weren’t allowed to shine our light directly at them we could only seem them by the dim light of other’s head lamps. Sleeping peacefully, they were like adorable, untouchable, upside down mice with wings. Caving was by far the most physically demanding activity I have ever done. After slipping, jumping, falling (a lot), climbing 10ft+ tall structures, getting coated in a thick layer of mud, and wading through thigh deep water for twenty minutes, I was exhausted. But after bonding with the other students, experiencing total darkness, seeing bats in their natural habitat, and crossing caving off my bucket list, it was totally worth it.
Chances are you’ve seen one. Whether on your evening stroll, early drive into work, or even in a zoo, bats aren’t as elusive as we may think. Wildly flapping their wings and looking a bit like drunken birds, they’re kind of hard to miss. Across the globe, there are an estimated 1,300 species of bats (the second most diverse order after rodents) and they are the only mammals that can fly. Given that number, the conservation status of 30% of bat species is currently unknown, and combined with the lack of population data, bats could very well be at a risk for extinction and we wouldn’t even know it.
Ranging as far north as Maine and as far south as Alabama, the Indiana Bat is native to only the United States. Contrary to popular belief, these bats don’t live in caves their entire lives, they roost in the northern parts of the U.S. under bridges, barks of large trees, and occasionally in buildings. Hibernating only occurs in limestone caves and under dead tree bark in the winter. They only weigh between 5-11 grams (about the weight of a quarter or two) and have a wingspan of 240-267 mm (9-10 inches). All in all, they are relatively small compared to other native U.S. bats, but what really distinguishes them is their keeled calcar, a small projection near each foot which provides wing stability, and their soft fur. Despite their wide distribution, Indiana bats are more social than most bat species in that both males and females hibernate together, and females form maternity colonies together.
As far as their history in terms of relationships with humans, bats are often associated with death, superstition, fear, night, the occult, vampires, demons, and devils in Western and European cultures. I’m sure we’ve all seen our fair share of demonized looking bats at Halloween, this certainly does not help their reputation. To clear up the common misconceptions, National Geographic published an article shortly after Halloween disproving myths that vampire bats seek out human blood (they primarily feed on cattle), they’re blind and use echolocation to maneuver (they can see three times better than humans), they get stuck in hair (no species of bats make nests), all bats are rabid (you are more likely to get rabies from a dog), they’re an evil nemesis (they have a nemesis: white nose syndrome), and lastly, that bats don’t matter. Seen as either heroic vigilantes (i.e. Batman), or demons of the night, bats are often overlooked when it comes to their ecosystem services. According to a Scientific American article, bats provide an estimated $3.7 billion dollars’ worth of insect control for farms in the U.S. alone!
Perhaps what makes the Indiana bat most vulnerable is their ability to give birth to only one pup a year. When mating occurs in the fall, females store the male’s sperm during hibernation until spring arrives and fertilization occurs. Since this species has relatively low reproduction rates, this makes them more vulnerable to extinction, especially now thanks to white nose syndrome and habitat loss. According to North Carolina Bat Working Group (NCBWG), “Indiana bats were the first bat species to be listed as “endangered” in 1967 under the new Endangered Species Act with their main threat being habitat loss. The vast majority of individuals gather in large groups for hibernation, but use only a small number of caves, making them extremely vulnerable during hibernation.” Disturbances like deforestation, clearcutting for agricultural use, pesticides, cave commercialization, and poorly designed cave gates all have negative effects on Indiana bat populations. Additionally, “white nose syndrome has an influence on the status and trends of Indiana bat populations, stalling and in some cases reversing population gains made in recent years” according to the Red List of Threatened Species.
Thanks to the anthropogenic disturbances Elizabeth Kolbert examines in The Sixth Extinction, more is now known about human’s role in bat extinction and endangerment. Using the Little Brown Bat as an example, she notes that Darwin’s idea of natural selection is different from what’s happening now in the way that in the Anthropocene, humans are now responsible for animals traveling longer distances (through trade and travel) and environmental disruptions. Bat equilibriums across the U.S. are being disrupted thanks to the distributions of the white nose syndrome causing fungus, Pseudogymnoascus destructans. This invasive species can best be described as a mechanism of extinction thanks to humans.
Fortunately, conservation actions like protecting known maternity roosts, forest management, designating caves as protective habitats, and closely monitoring populations all help to prevent extinction of the unique Indiana bat. Instead of ignoring the repercussions of our environmental disturbances, we should carefully study and monitor the effects of our actions on the animals that provide us with the valuable ecosystem services we take for granted.
Ilona Campo | May 2018
It was the end of February of my sophomore year at App State and I had signed up with three of my friends to go caving with outdoor programs. It was a few weeks before our trip and I was so excited to go on this unique adventure. However, one by one they started backing out and I ended up alone with a group of other students who also had never been caving. I had no idea what to expect. After our hour and a half drive and a brief lunch we made our decent into Worley’s Cave in Bluff City, Tennessee.
The closest thing to a cave I had been in was Laurel Caverns in Pennsylvania. I assumed this experience would be much different from the popular tourist destination, and I was right. Upon entry of Worley’s Cave, I was immediately mesmerized by the natural structures, the shiny ceilings, and circulating dust illuminated only by our headlights. The cave floor was incredibly slippery and it was difficult to walk even five feet without falling. If we were lucky enough to look up at the right moment we could see clusters of hibernating bats. Since we weren’t allowed to shine our light directly at them we could only seem them by the dim light of other’s head lamps. Sleeping peacefully, they were like adorable, untouchable, upside down mice with wings. Caving was by far the most physically demanding activity I have ever done. After slipping, jumping, falling (a lot), climbing 10ft+ tall structures, getting coated in a thick layer of mud, and wading through thigh deep water for twenty minutes, I was exhausted. But after bonding with the other students, experiencing total darkness, seeing bats in their natural habitat, and crossing caving off my bucket list, it was totally worth it.
Chances are you’ve seen one. Whether on your evening stroll, early drive into work, or even in a zoo, bats aren’t as elusive as we may think. Wildly flapping their wings and looking a bit like drunken birds, they’re kind of hard to miss. Across the globe, there are an estimated 1,300 species of bats (the second most diverse order after rodents) and they are the only mammals that can fly. Given that number, the conservation status of 30% of bat species is currently unknown, and combined with the lack of population data, bats could very well be at a risk for extinction and we wouldn’t even know it.
Ranging as far north as Maine and as far south as Alabama, the Indiana Bat is native to only the United States. Contrary to popular belief, these bats don’t live in caves their entire lives, they roost in the northern parts of the U.S. under bridges, barks of large trees, and occasionally in buildings. Hibernating only occurs in limestone caves and under dead tree bark in the winter. They only weigh between 5-11 grams (about the weight of a quarter or two) and have a wingspan of 240-267 mm (9-10 inches). All in all, they are relatively small compared to other native U.S. bats, but what really distinguishes them is their keeled calcar, a small projection near each foot which provides wing stability, and their soft fur. Despite their wide distribution, Indiana bats are more social than most bat species in that both males and females hibernate together, and females form maternity colonies together.
As far as their history in terms of relationships with humans, bats are often associated with death, superstition, fear, night, the occult, vampires, demons, and devils in Western and European cultures. I’m sure we’ve all seen our fair share of demonized looking bats at Halloween, this certainly does not help their reputation. To clear up the common misconceptions, National Geographic published an article shortly after Halloween disproving myths that vampire bats seek out human blood (they primarily feed on cattle), they’re blind and use echolocation to maneuver (they can see three times better than humans), they get stuck in hair (no species of bats make nests), all bats are rabid (you are more likely to get rabies from a dog), they’re an evil nemesis (they have a nemesis: white nose syndrome), and lastly, that bats don’t matter. Seen as either heroic vigilantes (i.e. Batman), or demons of the night, bats are often overlooked when it comes to their ecosystem services. According to a Scientific American article, bats provide an estimated $3.7 billion dollars’ worth of insect control for farms in the U.S. alone!
Perhaps what makes the Indiana bat most vulnerable is their ability to give birth to only one pup a year. When mating occurs in the fall, females store the male’s sperm during hibernation until spring arrives and fertilization occurs. Since this species has relatively low reproduction rates, this makes them more vulnerable to extinction, especially now thanks to white nose syndrome and habitat loss. According to North Carolina Bat Working Group (NCBWG), “Indiana bats were the first bat species to be listed as “endangered” in 1967 under the new Endangered Species Act with their main threat being habitat loss. The vast majority of individuals gather in large groups for hibernation, but use only a small number of caves, making them extremely vulnerable during hibernation.” Disturbances like deforestation, clearcutting for agricultural use, pesticides, cave commercialization, and poorly designed cave gates all have negative effects on Indiana bat populations. Additionally, “white nose syndrome has an influence on the status and trends of Indiana bat populations, stalling and in some cases reversing population gains made in recent years” according to the Red List of Threatened Species.
Thanks to the anthropogenic disturbances Elizabeth Kolbert examines in The Sixth Extinction, more is now known about human’s role in bat extinction and endangerment. Using the Little Brown Bat as an example, she notes that Darwin’s idea of natural selection is different from what’s happening now in the way that in the Anthropocene, humans are now responsible for animals traveling longer distances (through trade and travel) and environmental disruptions. Bat equilibriums across the U.S. are being disrupted thanks to the distributions of the white nose syndrome causing fungus, Pseudogymnoascus destructans. This invasive species can best be described as a mechanism of extinction thanks to humans.
Fortunately, conservation actions like protecting known maternity roosts, forest management, designating caves as protective habitats, and closely monitoring populations all help to prevent extinction of the unique Indiana bat. Instead of ignoring the repercussions of our environmental disturbances, we should carefully study and monitor the effects of our actions on the animals that provide us with the valuable ecosystem services we take for granted.