in 2013, joe kath entered a mine and immediately spotted a bat with a white nose. this fuzzy, silvery mustache announced that white-nose syndrome, a deadly bat fungus thought to have spread from europe to north america by travelers, had inevitably invaded illinois. “it was kind of like a gut punch, but we also knew it was coming,” said kath, the endangered and threatened species manager at the illinois department of natural resources.

when covid-19 emerged seven years later, conservation researcher tara hohoff was instructed to stop handling bats. this pause in her work wasn’t implemented because the bats might give her the virus, but rather because she could transmit it to the bats. “i think there’s this fear of: what if we now introduce something else to these bats?” said hohoff, an associate mammologist at the university of illinois urbana-champaign and co-leader of the illinois bat conservation program.

six out of illinois’ 13 bat species are classified as endangered, subjected to a myriad of threats ranging from disease to clean energy to agricultural development. researchers across the state are working to protect bats, studying species abundance, activity and habitat to guide conservation practices. facing the aftermath of association between bats and covid-19 and a period of increased rabies cases from bat bites, conservationists are engaging in public outreach to gain support for an often criticized, yet critical, creature. “these organisms that we are so hard on are incredibly valuable to our persistence as a species on this planet,” said mark davis, a conservation biologist at the university of illinois urbana-champaign and co-leader of the illinois bat conservation program.

with mortality rates exceeding 90%, white-nose syndrome has killed about 7 million bats in north america since it was detected on the continent in 2006, kath said. the affected species include the federally endangered indiana bat and the northern long-eared bat as well as the “common” tricolored bat and little brown bat. white-nose syndrome has depleted over 90% of the northern long-eared, tricolored and little brown bat populations, according to the united states geological survey. given this devastating toll, the latter two species may soon be listed as endangered or threatened, kath said. 

clean energy-producing wind turbines deliver the second of a “one-two punch” against illinois’ bats, kath said. the red bat and the hoary bat forage at about the same altitude as the turbine blades, leading to mass mortalities. destruction of bat habitats for agricultural production is another major hurdle for local bats, davis said. “all of these factors have conspired together to make life as a bat in illinois really difficult in the past 20 years,” he said. 

the decline in bats presents a significant problem for illinois’ corn- and soybean-based economy. one study estimates that by eating insects that damage crops, bats save the agricultural industry approximately $23 billion in pesticide each year. “more pesticide application results in higher food costs to the average consumer, and then the ball just keeps rolling,” kath said.

the cascades will continue to reverberate. a dwindling bat population could lead to a boom in their disease-spreading mosquito prey and threaten the pollination and seed dispersal services they provide in other regions. “it sounds like hyperbole, but it’s not,” davis said. “the loss of bats from our ecosystems would be catastrophic.” 

illinois’ bat researchers are doing their part to keep catastrophe at bay. hohoff’s work focuses on recording bats’ unique echolocation calls to identify different species and map their distribution patterns. she uses ultra-fine “mist nets” to capture, examine and release bats to corroborate the species indicated by the acoustic signature. 

kath also uses mist netting to survey bat activity during the summer. some bats are fixed with a radio transmitter, which sends out a signal that can be tracked to find the trees where they roost. he then performs emergence counts, tallying how many bats leave the roost in the evening to help measure local population levels and pinpoint critical habitats. in the winter, he monitors bats at hibernation sites like caves and abandoned mines. 

davis’ research involves analyzing the dna in a bat’s excrement, called guano, to determine its species and study its diet, which helps him understand how bats are using the landscape. 

collectively, this information can help prevent destructive land management and development projects, such as constructing a wind farm in an area with heavy bat activity or cutting down trees in areas with endangered species. 

while illinois’ bats haven’t turned the corner yet, the researchers have seen glimmers of hope. death rates due to white-nose syndrome seem to be slowing, davis said. europe’s bats eventually developed immunity to the disease, and davis is trying to find out if the same process is happening in north america now. to do so, he is analyzing bats’ genetic material before and after the arrival of white-nose syndrome to look for any mutations that might grant resistance to the disease.

habitat conservation projects have also brought good news. hohoff and davis partnered with the prairie conservation organization grand prairie friends to evaluate bat activity in habitats converted from agricultural fields and found that bats quickly returned to enjoy the restored land. kath collaborated with the mining company covia to stabilize the magazine mine at the southern tip of illinois, which has since become the second largest hibernation site for indiana bats in north america. 

working to save animals battling extinction is typically regarded with respect and admiration, but bat conservationists face the unusual challenge of unfavorable public perception of their advocate organism. “bats are a fairly maligned critter, and oftentimes, people have negative connotations associated with them,” davis said. 

in addition to media coverage linking bats to covid-19, bats have been at the center of a recent cluster of rabies cases. bats lead the risk of death from rabies in the united states, according to the cdc. every animal that tested positive for rabies in illinois in 2021 was a bat, but only 40 were identified in the entire state, according to the illinois department of public health. “not an awful lot of animals test positive, but enough to cause an impact on public health because rabies is a deadly disease,” said mabel frías, the assistant director of the communicable disease control unit at the cook county department of public health.

in the fall of 2021, three people in the united states—one in illinois—died after contracting rabies from a bat. two of the exposures were considered “avoidable,” and all three failed to receive the post-exposure prophylaxis (pep) injection that can prevent rabies before the onset of symptoms, according to a press release from the cdc. the release highlights the importance of avoiding contact with bats and receiving pep after a potential exposure. public health responses should focus on preventing disease transmission rather than eradicating bats, frías said. “the value of bats to our economy far outweighs the risk they present to human health,” davis said. 

still, in light of this bad press, illinois’ bat researchers have worked hard to garner investment in bat conservation. at the start of the pandemic, hohoff seized every speaking opportunity she could to remind people that the source of covid-19 hasn’t been confirmed and that it’s humans’ responsibility to erect barriers with wildlife. kath has collaborated with the illinois department of public health to develop seminars on how to minimize the risk of bat encounters. “we do a lot of work with the public to try to relay the message that we need to coexist with bats because our livelihoods depend on them,” davis said. 

in some ways, their efforts have already paid off. requests to place acoustic recorders on private property are largely successful, and some citizens are actively participating in bat conservation, identifying bat roosts and performing their own emergence counts. hohoff has noticed that her presentations tend to attract a younger audience that is excited about bats. “i do think things are changing,” she said. 

the team hopes their research, conservation and outreach work will help protect an underappreciated part of the environment. “i’m inspired to try to make some sort of a difference to ensure that these things that have captivated me throughout my life and that provide tremendous value to us as a species are around for future generations,” davis said. 

podcast transcription:

helen bradshaw  0:02 
what bat data scientist tina chang remembers most about visiting bats in virginia isn’t seeing the scary creatures of halloween stories, or even the sweet animals of children’s picture books. what she remembers is the overwhelming number of dead bats from white-nose syndrome.

tina cheng  0:20 
it’s really heartbreaking to walk in and see these sick bats. sometimes you would find carcasses in caves as well. and these were, this was especially devastating, going to some caves where are these biologists that come for years. they go to these spots and they know exactly where the bats are because they come back every year. and we would return with these researchers and not only with the bats not be there, but we would see bones on the floor. and that was also really heartbreaking.

helen bradshaw  0:54 
amid the bat linked pandemic that spread between people across the world, covid-19, bats in the us are facing an epidemic of their own with white-nose syndrome. since the discovery of white-nose syndrome in upstate new york in 2006, potentially 10s of millions of bats across the country have died. white-nose syndrome attacks hibernating bats in the form of a fungus pseudogymnoascus destructans, known as pd. this fungus then attaches spores of itself to the bats. these spores are what we see as the white fuzz on bats’ noses, hence the name. but how does a little white fuzz on a bat’s nose cause so much death?

rich geboy  1:34 
yeah, so that’s a great question.

helen bradshaw  1:37 
that’s the us fish and wildlife’s white-nose syndrome coordinator for the midwest, rich geboy.

rich geboy  1:43 
the bats themselves typically will acquire a white fuzz on their muzzle or on their wings. and as it grows into the tissue of the bat’s muzzle, or the wing, or the tail membrane, that will then become set in the effects of the disease.

helen bradshaw  2:05 
the effect of the disease, cheng says in blunter terms, is that it causes the bats to come out of torpor in the winter when they aren’t supposed to and…

tina cheng  2:14 
and then they burn through their fat reserves. and many of them die of starvation.

helen bradshaw  2:19 
but mammoth cave resource management specialist, rickard toomey, says there is hope in the form of vaccination. 

rickard toomey  2:27 
there are tons of people working on cures, mitigations, vaccines, probiotics, all sorts of different approaches, trying to do exactly that: make the bats more immune.

helen bradshaw  2:45 
cheng and geboy say these vaccines and probiotics have not been developed nearly as quickly as our own covid-19 vaccines or shown as encouraging of results.

tina cheng  2:55 
so there have been several probiotics that were under investigation and brought to different levels of trial. so i helped to work on one that’s a bacterial probiotic, it’s naturally found on the skin of bats. and the idea is just to try and amplify that on the skin of bats to provide some type of protection. there have not been any trials, including the one that i worked on, which has shown an increase in survival yet. it’s not to say that this type of intervention is not fruitful or worth continuing. but it has not yet shown really promising results. 

rich geboy  3:43 
there have been a number of scientists looking at this out of the national wildlife health center in madison, wisconsin, essentially trying to develop this vaccine. and with the eventual hope of leading to increased survival from bats. at this point, it’s not there, but they’re still in the development phase of that.

helen bradshaw  4:06 
but dissemination of these medicines would be tricky. america’s millions of bats can’t just book an appointment for a shot. 

tina cheng  4:14 
i think the idea was to get the vaccine in some kind of spray, and then to spray it on bats and then when they groom themselves, which they do quite a bit, then they would ingest the oral vaccine and get vaccinated.

helen bradshaw  4:28 
in the meantime, precautions have been put into action in places like mammoth cave. at this point, these measures are less so for keeping white-nose syndrome out as they are for keeping it in. park visitor alex weaver experienced the bleach bath journey firsthand.

alex weaver  4:43 
so as i saw the, the little thing that we walked through, i was i was kind of confused. i was like i just i don’t know what these are for. so i wasn’t sure if it was more for the protection of the people or agriculture outside of the caves. but after a little bit of questions, i realized this for the bats. i don’t really see too many bats while i was down there. but i figured they, they need protection just like anybody else. so it’s got to follow the little bat rules.

helen bradshaw  5:15 
anti-bat sentiment from the pandemic, and the fact that bats are the primary carrier of rabies in the state of illinois, aren’t helping awareness or support for a cure either. author and journalist david quammen, of outsider magazine and the new york times, says an international fear of bats has deep historical roots, largely based on false information.

david quammen  5:35 
in some cultures, there are these negative impressions of bats, fears of bats, because they are peculiar. they are mammals that fly. bats, in fact, do carry a lot of different kinds of viruses, of which rabies is the most famous and the most scary, because it has the highest case fatality rate. but the fact is that if we leave bats alone, then there’s very, very, very little chance of us getting infected with their viruses. there was a concern that this pandemic not be turned into another excuse for persecuting bats. because there is a high likelihood that this virus originated in a form of bat and the bat didn’t come looking for a human. humans, in some way, still undiscovered, put themselves in a situation where they, they gave the virus an opportunity to spill over from a bat into a human fatefully.

helen bradshaw  6:40 
even if an effective vaccine or probiotic is developed, and even if it’s successfully administered, it’s possible not all the bats can be saved in time. cornell says white nose syndrome has a mortality rate of 90 to 100% among some species of hibernating bats, meaning until a treatment is implemented, bat species like the northern long-eared bat are at risk of extinction.

rickard toomey  7:02 
in 2004, 2005, we had a big bath survey, and northern long-eared bats were almost 50% of the bats caught on the park in the summer. 800 bats were caught. post white-nose, we caught i think two of them. our catch rate on northern long-eared bats went down 99.7%. northern long-eared bats on mammoth cave national park are functionally extirpated.

helen bradshaw  7:39 
while some areas hit by white-nose syndrome have stabilizing populations of little brown bats, the future of north american bats is uncertain.

tina cheng  7:47 
there are other species that have not recovered, that are not stabilized, that have gone sometimes to zero, and will likely never come back.

transcribed by https://otter.ai