Disease-ravaged bat may make list

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In only four years, little brown bats have gone from being the most abundant bats in New York state to being a candidate for the state’s endangered species list.

An affliction called white nose syndrome has ravaged bat populations in New York and crept into eight other states since it was first discovered in a Schoharie County cave after the winter of 2006-07.

The threat to the bats is so great that, at this point, state Department of Environmental Conservation mammal specialist Alan Hicks on Monday said he expects to nominate little browns for listing during an update of the state’s endangered species list this fall.

The Indiana bat, Allegheny woodrat, gray wolf, cougar and eight types of whale are the only mammals on the state’s list of 53 species considered endangered, according to the DEC.

Hicks said animals are considered endangered if they are at risk of being extirpated, or eliminated from a region, or extinct altogether within a foreseeable future.

“I would venture to say it would be pretty hard not to include all of our cave-dwelling bats for that reason,” Hicks said.

“They’re all at risk,” he said.

Hicks said endangered species listing typically affords animals more protection.

Starting Thursday, the Northeastern Cave Conservancy is closing three caves — Knox Cave, Crossbones Cave and Ella Armstrong Cave — all in Albany County, in an effort to protect hibernating bats.

These seasonal cave closures add to the massive shutdown of caves by federal and state agencies in roughly two-thirds of the country, said Peter Youngbaer, vice president of the Northeastern Cave Conservancy.

Youngbaer said he’s planning to attend a major cave conservancy meeting next week in Pennsylvania and for the first time there won’t be any caving involved.

“There’s no caving, and that’s true in a number of events around the country that have just been canceled. People are going into some caves, they’re just not going into bat caves,” Youngbaer said.

State wildlife agencies, pathologists, researchers and other scientists have been taking various approaches to find an answer to what is killing the bats. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is hoping to coordinate a plan with states, federal agencies and American Indian tribes to manage white nose syndrome.

It spells out various aspects needed to manage these efforts, including getting a database together that all the agencies can use for information.

A centralized system is sought as well to provide immediate access to data and critical information, according to a draft of this plan.

Among the goals is developing a reliable test for rapid diagnosis in bats.

Scientists fear that one of the affected bat populations, Virginia big-eared bats, risks extinction.

The plan calls for establishing a “captive propagation program,” an effort to keep these bats alive in a controlled environment.

The amount of money dedicated to researching the syndrome is disappointing, said Mollie Matteson, a wildlife biologist at the Vermont-based Center for Biological Diversity, a national nonprofit group dedicated to endangered species and wild places.

The nonprofit is calling for faster action and more resources to address the “catastrophe.”

Bat colonies that still survive now will visit numerous caves and mines while working to fatten up and get ready for hibernation, said Hicks.

Some will be seen in caves now, and they will start filtering into caves and mines as the fall progresses, he said.

By mid-October many of the bats will be in caves hibernating, with most of them in by early November, Hicks said.