Bats, Not Easy to Love, Dying Daily by Thousands

This is a continuation of an earlier post about bats.  The title is from an article published in 2013. The article states "......these are hard days for these peculiar animals, because they face mass extinction from a disease called White Nose Syndrome and every night thousands of are killed by energy-producing wind turbines that conservationists, economists and politicians hope will reduce this nation's need for foreign oil. Every solution to this perplexing energy problem comes with a downside, and wind turbines are no exception. A new study from the University of Colorado, Denver, estimates that 600,000 bats were killed by wind turbines last year alone."

The problem is similar to that faced by honey bees. Bees are also under stress and there is evidence that some bee extinctions are also related to human activities.

Why should anyone care about bat fatalities? "According to Bat Conservation International of Austin, Texas, the "low end estimate" of the value of bats to U.S. agriculture is at least $3.7 billion. Cotton farmers alone are saved about $74 per acre."

Let's not also ignore the millions of mosquitoes that are taken out of the air by bats.

There are several twists to this problem with wind turbines. For one thing, collisions aren't the problem. Spinning wind turbine blades create pressure changes in their vicinity. According to Erin Baerwald of the University of Calgary. This "sudden but subtle drop in atmospheric pressure from the blades causes internal hemorrhaging, a condition known as barotrauma. Bats are more vulnerable to barotrauma than birds, according to Baerwald, and bat fatalities far outnumber bird fatalities at most sites, so this has become "a bat issue, not a bird issue.""

The other interesting thing about the wind turbine problem is there is an easy solution. See the article for the explanation.

Finally, our government has take up the mantle of saving birds, but generally ignores the problems and stresses on bats. Perhaps a lack of education or too many horror movies which portray bats as vampires. Besides, there aren't any "save the bats" groups in every neighborhood, while birds get their own magazines, societies and so on.

Here's a link to the original article:

http://abcnews.go.com - wind turbine massacres of bats

Driving us Batty

Bats are one of the critters which inhabit the area and we frequently see them flying in the park across the street at dusk.

Each bat kills thousands of insects each night. Many of those are mosquitoes. Other natural mosquito predators include dragonflies. According to an article in the Patch: "Bats play an important role in the local ecosystem and can significantly reduce the insect population in your neighborhood. “One bat can eat up to 3,000 mosquitoes in one night, or any insect outside after dark, like moths and crickets,” said Christopher Appelt, a biologist and associate professor at Saint Xavier University in Chicago. “Put 100 bats out there, and they can eat 300,000 insects in one night.”"

On occasion it is my understanding residents of our community have found one roosting in the space between deck supports. Generally, these are invisible to us and we aren't even aware they are in the air space or on the property. One sign is bat dung. I've attended HOA meetings where an owner complained about a bat. They can be relocated or as the professionals prefer to say "excluded." The article states that "Bats in the United States are protected species.....It is against the law...to kill or poison bats when removing them from buildings. Bat exclusion is also prohibited when pups are still nursing and in the roost."

The article provides some interesting statistics about rabies and also preventative tips.

The article uses some interesting language, including the article title. The Patch apparently feels the need for sensationalism to get us to read their articles, and stick around long enough to click on those ads.

While bats are generally beneficial and invisible, the article quoted a "Senior Bat Technician" as saying: “The Midwest is just unbelievably infested with bats.....I’d say 80 percent of neighborhoods are infested with bats, and people don’t even know about it.”

My opinion is it would be more realistic to state that the area is unbelievably infested with mosquitoes. But a Senior Bat Technician has got to eat.

The Chicago Patch posted one of the better articles I've seen and I've included a link here.

http://patch.com/illinois - article on bats June 10, 2016