Bats in WNS areas are breeding

[Wm Shrewsbury]

Survivors are breeding: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/12/20/national/a122149S68.DTL#ixzz1h7MCUSdZy

Very interesting toward the end where it speaks about Vermont bats.

[Anonymous_Coward]

...and always nice to hear from our friend Mollie Matteson. She actually didn't say anything inflammatory this time!

[PYoungbaer]

The bats at Fort Drum have successfully reproduced for two years running, despite coming down with WNS. The females recovered and were obviously healthy enough to give birth and nurse, which takes a tremendous amount of energy and wing strength. Why? Nobody knows, but it does parallel the bats in Europe, which get WNS but don't die.

Re: the Vermont bats, I had an email exchange with Scott Darling yesterday on this. We have fewer known colonies now in Vermont, and they are all quite small. However, they are exhibiting the same things we've seen for the past two years in Massachusetts and New York: some fungal growth externally during the winter, but no behavioral changes. By that, I mean they appear to be of normal weight, and have returned to their typical roosting places deeper in the caves and mines, not out near the entrances. It's as if WNS has wreaked whatever havoc it's going to, and now the issue is recovery.

Recovery is an open question. Whether or not the remaining populations are sufficient to repopulate is up in the air, and it will likely be many years before anyone will say anything definitive on that.

We also have one Little Brown colony in New York that has grown from 2000 to 4500 in the past two years, despite the presence of WNS. Clearly, bats have come here from elsewhere. Such a noted growth would not be from typical reproductive rates (one pup per year per female with 40% survival rates).

[wyandottecaver]

Peter,

Is this additional data from fort drum or the original study published a while back? If I recall correctly ( I might not) they did get breeding females with WNS 2 years in a row, but not necessarily the SAME breeding females. In other words, a female that had WNS gave birth each of those years but the same female didnt reproduce for 2 yrs.\

*edit* I re-read the study. They did get 3 females that reproduced in both 2009 and 2010 but did not specify if those females had WNS both years or not, though it's possible. Still pretty grim numbers when you track the colony as a whole, which is in "ideal" conditions and most of the WNS "recovery" was between emergence and return during the summer, though a few bats did survive 2 winters.

[BrianC]

We also have one Little Brown colony in New York that has grown from 2000 to 4500 in the past two years, despite the presence of WNS. Clearly, bats have come here from elsewhere. Such a noted growth would not be from typical reproductive rates (one pup per year per female with 40% survival rates).

The good news is that bats are showing up, and it doesn't matter whether they have come from Europe or somewhere else, they are there! The rate of WNS spread has not been even close to what should have been expected over the past two years, maybe someone spreading it ran out of gas, or lost their job (just kidding really). In any event, the speculators at the federal level have made decisions that need to be revised as the facts become available (we have much information NOW). I know that I have been extremely critical of the decisions at the federal level, and I still have much to say in that regard. It appears that while the money becomes harder to be available, the bats appear to be getting better HMmm. There must be a horrible epidemic in the environment fixing to steal the thunder (and the funding).

[tncaver]

I have no apologies to biologists and eco bat fanatics who wanted to close every dang cave in the U.S. because of WNS. Mother nature
was, and is in control, and common sense reigns supreme. Conservation is GREAT, but conservation fanatics often go overboard.
Really, all you fanatics out there need to lighten up and embrace your caving brothers and sisters. We ALL love caves and everything in them.

[wyandottecaver]

you can lead a caver to science but you can't make him think.......

[tncaver]

Don't misunderstand me. I do appreciate the efforts of sincere biologists, working on White Nose Syndrome issues. However, there have been, in my opinion, some who have jumped on the money and control bandwagon and have done their share to limit freedom to go caving in NON BAT caves here in the U.S.

P.S. Wyandottecaver, you can lead a scientist to caves but you can't teach them common sense.

[Jon]

Follow the money and the power. Toss in some PC fame and well you have our world. Some people on both sides will toss out all reason just to say "Look at me, I think I know something I don't, but I bet I can fool most of you". I just wish people would quit worrying about their 15 minutes of fame and glory and worry about what is happening and how to solve or deal with it.

[wyandottecaver]

TN,

I'm not disagreeing that there have been a lot of sticky hands in the WNS pot, or that the Agencies are using good science....well in some cases even using science at all.... But the article in this thread hardly shows that nature is "in control" as far as bat recovery goes, and "common sense" is pretty subjective based on your world view. Some could (and do) argue that doing any recreational caving at all, with the threat of WNS defies "common sense".

[tncaver]

TN,
Some could (and do) argue that doing any recreational caving at all, with the threat of WNS defies "common sense".

I suspect those are the same people who think doing any recreational caving before the WNS issue, was defying common sense. They are the extremists who fail to see any value in humans touching anything on the planet. However, if humans don't touch, learn and explore, science will shrivel and die and humans would still be living in the dark ages.

[PYoungbaer]

The Fort Drum study was just published in the December issue of the Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management. Here's a link to the full report.

http://www.fwspubs.org/doi/full/10.3996/022011-JFWM-014

Little Brown Myotis Persist Despite Exposure to White-Nose Syndrome

Christopher A. Dobony*, Alan C. Hicks, Kate E. Langwig, Ryan I. von Linden, Joseph C. Okoniewski, Raymond E. Rainbolt
C.A. Dobony, R.E. Rainbolt
Fort Drum Military Installation, Natural Resources Branch, 85 First Street West, IMNE-DRM-PWE, Fort Drum, New York 13602
A.C. Hicks, R.I. von Linden, J.C. Okoniewski
New York Department of Environmental Conservation, 625 Broadway, Albany, New York 12233
K.E. Langwig
Center for Ecology and Conservation Biology, Department of Biology, Boston University, 5 Cummington Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02215

Abstract
We monitored a maternity colony of little brown myotis Myotis lucifugus on Fort Drum Military Installation in northern New York in 2009 and 2010 for impacts associated with white-nose syndrome. Declines in colony numbers presumed to be caused by white-nose syndrome were initially discovered in the spring 2009. Although colony numbers have continued to decline, we determined that a minimum of 12 individual banded female little brown myotis survived over multiple years despite exposure to white-nose syndrome. Our results also provide evidence that 14 of 20 recaptured female little brown myotis were able to heal from wing damage and infection associated with white-nose syndrome within a given year, and seven of eight recaptures from within both 2009 and 2010 showed evidence of reproduction.

[tncaver]

I think it is wonderful that bats are surviving and breeding in Pennsylvania caves where previously they were only dying. I find it a wonderful relief that Mother Nature is accomplishing this without human meddling and she seems to be doing a much better job than mankind.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 1h7MCUSdZy

Speaking of human meddling, it seems that has just begun. Here's one example stated by Mollie Matteson: Matteson said that while the survivors are good news, much needs to be done to protect the survivors and make it possible for them to reproduce. One method being tried is the use of special bat boxes where the bats would be able to roost in the summer and keep warm when raising their young.

Here is another example of experimentation where bats are being infected with WNS by humans to study them. As if they didn't already have enough problems with WNS, here is mankind infecting them with more WNS.
http://knoxville.tennesseenewstv.com/20 ... e-in-bats/

I hope the bats continue to reproduce on their own and I hope that biologists don't make things worse. I feel sorry for the healthy bats that
are being used as guinea pigs. It seems those poor bats are going to be disturbed a lot this coming year. I still follow the same policy that
most cavers have followed for years. Stay away from them and let them carry on their lives in peace without disturbance or unnecessary handling.

Yaaa Mother Nature!

[wyandottecaver]

yes, thats the same study Peter. The abstract sounds great, but when you start breaking down the numbers it's pretty grim.

[SuckinOnSodaStraws]

Go little brown myotis! Prove em' wrong! Happy my fav bat is doing the best.