by PYoungbaer » Jan 13, 2011 6:19 pm
Sungura,
Our hibernating bats regularly arouse from their torpor during the winter, roughly every three weeks under typical circumstances. This varies by species, but, for purposes of this reply, it's normal. They urinate, groom, drink water, and occasionally mate (although that's mostly a fall swarm activity). They don't usually go outside in winter climes. The sighting of bats flying outside in winter, and in the daytime, are tell-tale signs the bats are likely affected by WNS.
If a bat colony is infected, this is about the time it would begin to manifest and become apparent to observers. They are beginning to run out of stored fats. The mortalities associated with WNS increase from now until the end of winter. If this winter is like the last few, we'll see a continuous stream of reports from the WNS "front lines" over the next three months. Right now, that's PA, MD, WVA, VA, and TN. We've been expecting reports from KY, but that didn't happen last year. Same for Ohio and Indiana.
There were a handful of bats in MO and one in OK reported with the fungus, but WNS was not confirmed.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we may see a slowing this year, but only time will tell.
And yes, European bats are different than those in North America. I don't believe any of the species are the same, although there are certainly many in the same (Myotis) genus.