Story by Lisa Johnson • Edmonton Journal
Yesterday
A little brown myotis bat in hibernation.
'Cloaked in so much secrecy': Staffing split will hurt Alberta fish and wildlife management, critics say
Wilkinson agreed. “If there’s bats that winter in cracks and crevices in small numbers, it might slow the spread,” she said, adding by the same token, it makes bats harder to track.
Deni Cameron works in agronomy and has been aiming to raise public awareness about how losing bats in Alberta will impact the ecosystem, noting that without them to eat and control insects, farmers will be forced to use more insecticides, affecting important species like bees.
“Insecticides are indiscriminate. They’re going to kill the good bugs and the bad bugs,” said Cameron, adding that she’d like to see more public awareness campaigns, resources, and boots on the ground from the Alberta government.
The province has been participating in the North American Bat Monitoring Program’s acoustic research that helps detect bat activity levels since 2015, and is now also working on a recovery plan with biologists and stakeholders, Wilkinson said.
It’s also working to update its communications efforts.
‘The first sign’: early emergence from hibernation
Jamie Rothenburger, University of Calgary associate professor in Veterinary Medicine and co-regional director of the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative in the Alberta region, said bats infected with the syndrome could have a fluffy white coating on their nose, feet or wings.
With the fungus, bats can be forced out of their hibernation earlier than usual.
“The first sign is actually seeing bats out flying at the wrong time of year, like when it’s still winter. Then, there’s nothing for them to eat. So of course, they’re out of hibernation, they have reduced fat stores, and they often die of dehydration and starvation,” said Rothenburger.
“This is the most severe infectious disease we’ve ever had affecting wildlife in Canada,” she said, noting in some parts of North America 90 to 95 per cent of bat populations were lost.
She said some research suggests that in areas where there is white-nose syndrome, the loss of bats has led to an increase in insecticide and fungicide use.
“At a larger ecological scale, often we don’t fully appreciate all the things that a species does for us until it’s gone.”
Some bats can live more than 30 years, but they generally only have one pup each year, making it difficult to reverse population decline.
In Alberta, it is illegal to enter a cave where bats are hibernating between Sept. 1 and April 30. For those exploring caves, the provincial government also encourages the careful disinfection of equipment because while people aren’t known to be susceptible to the fungus, they can spread it around.
The Little Brown myotis bat, the Northern Long-eared Bat, and the Tri-coloured bat are listed as endangered species in Canada.
A little brown myotis bat in hibernation.
Photo by Jason Headley/Supplied© Provided by Edmonton Journal
As a fungus that has devastated bat colonies around North America is expected to infect bats in Alberta soon, experts are calling on Albertans to be on the lookout and help protect key habitats.
While the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome was found in guano, or bat droppings, in southeast Alberta last summer, the disease hasn’t yet been confirmed in bats. Most people don’t often see the nocturnal mammals, but they perform important ecological work by eating things like mosquitoes and agricultural pests.
Scott McBurney is a wildlife pathologist with the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative in Atlantic Canada, at the Atlantic Veterinary College, University of Prince Edward Island. White-nose syndrome emerged in Eastern Canada in the late 2000s.
McBurney told Postmedia it’s likely Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia will see a “huge population collapse” of their bat species.
However, McBurney pointed to the importance of regular surveillance by wildlife professionals at winter hibernation sites. He also pointed to the work of citizen scientists, where in P.E.I., they helped report dead bats on the landscape, allowing researchers to map the progress of white-nose syndrome and come up with important mitigation or recovery efforts.
“That was a huge piece, because there’s no way any of us that are either hired by the government or within universities or other scientists can be the boots on the ground all over the place all the time,” he said.
People can also help by building bat boxes or other bat-friendly habitats on private property, or being careful to remove bats from buildings with the help of pest control operators at the right time in the fall without harming vulnerable pups, he said.
“Anybody and everybody can partake in these things.”
‘People can play a really big role’
Lisa Wilkinson, senior species at risk biologist at Alberta Fish and Wildlife and the provincial bat specialist, said it’s important for residents across the province to better understand bats and their importance to the ecosystem.
“We know we can’t stop this disease from decimating our population, so the best thing we can do is maintain the best environment,” said Wilkinson, noting that it’s easier for bat populations to recover if they have good, safe places to roost and forage for insects.
“People can play a really big role,” said Wilkinson.
Wilkinson said the government is going to continue to support the Alberta Community Bat Program, which offers information and resources on its website, www.albertabats.ca , and helps collect guano for testing. Wilkinson said it’s important to focus on surveillance, outreach and education.
“We’re probably in the early stages, so it will take a year or two for the fungus to be in hibernation areas, for it to grow and reach a capacity where it’s really going to start to infect the bats. We may see bats this year with white-nose syndrome.”
In the spring, provincial officials will be looking to catch and release some bats on their summer route in southeastern Alberta to try to detect traces of the fungus, and investigating two primary hibernation caves.
Wilkinson said she’s also keeping a close eye on a project piloting probiotic treatments that could slow or prevent the spread of the fungus.
“If some of these solutions such as the probiotic seem to be successful, and if they will work in our situation and the places where we can apply them, we’re absolutely going to do that,” she said, adding that there may come a need for more resources to expand the government’s work.
McBurney noted that while various treatments are being tried, “in all reality, there has been no silver bullet found yet.”
In Western Canada, McBurney suggested that it’s possible the dispersed population of bats that live beyond well-known large caves and mines, which are more common in Eastern Canada, might help slow the spread of the disease.
“Maybe they’ll be spared from white-nose. I don’t know. Maybe I’m really clutching at straws and rooting for the bats here — but it’s a possibility,” he said.
Related
Opinion: Who is minding Alberta’s fish and wildlife?
As a fungus that has devastated bat colonies around North America is expected to infect bats in Alberta soon, experts are calling on Albertans to be on the lookout and help protect key habitats.
While the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome was found in guano, or bat droppings, in southeast Alberta last summer, the disease hasn’t yet been confirmed in bats. Most people don’t often see the nocturnal mammals, but they perform important ecological work by eating things like mosquitoes and agricultural pests.
Scott McBurney is a wildlife pathologist with the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative in Atlantic Canada, at the Atlantic Veterinary College, University of Prince Edward Island. White-nose syndrome emerged in Eastern Canada in the late 2000s.
McBurney told Postmedia it’s likely Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia will see a “huge population collapse” of their bat species.
However, McBurney pointed to the importance of regular surveillance by wildlife professionals at winter hibernation sites. He also pointed to the work of citizen scientists, where in P.E.I., they helped report dead bats on the landscape, allowing researchers to map the progress of white-nose syndrome and come up with important mitigation or recovery efforts.
“That was a huge piece, because there’s no way any of us that are either hired by the government or within universities or other scientists can be the boots on the ground all over the place all the time,” he said.
People can also help by building bat boxes or other bat-friendly habitats on private property, or being careful to remove bats from buildings with the help of pest control operators at the right time in the fall without harming vulnerable pups, he said.
“Anybody and everybody can partake in these things.”
‘People can play a really big role’
Lisa Wilkinson, senior species at risk biologist at Alberta Fish and Wildlife and the provincial bat specialist, said it’s important for residents across the province to better understand bats and their importance to the ecosystem.
“We know we can’t stop this disease from decimating our population, so the best thing we can do is maintain the best environment,” said Wilkinson, noting that it’s easier for bat populations to recover if they have good, safe places to roost and forage for insects.
“People can play a really big role,” said Wilkinson.
Wilkinson said the government is going to continue to support the Alberta Community Bat Program, which offers information and resources on its website, www.albertabats.ca , and helps collect guano for testing. Wilkinson said it’s important to focus on surveillance, outreach and education.
“We’re probably in the early stages, so it will take a year or two for the fungus to be in hibernation areas, for it to grow and reach a capacity where it’s really going to start to infect the bats. We may see bats this year with white-nose syndrome.”
In the spring, provincial officials will be looking to catch and release some bats on their summer route in southeastern Alberta to try to detect traces of the fungus, and investigating two primary hibernation caves.
Wilkinson said she’s also keeping a close eye on a project piloting probiotic treatments that could slow or prevent the spread of the fungus.
“If some of these solutions such as the probiotic seem to be successful, and if they will work in our situation and the places where we can apply them, we’re absolutely going to do that,” she said, adding that there may come a need for more resources to expand the government’s work.
McBurney noted that while various treatments are being tried, “in all reality, there has been no silver bullet found yet.”
In Western Canada, McBurney suggested that it’s possible the dispersed population of bats that live beyond well-known large caves and mines, which are more common in Eastern Canada, might help slow the spread of the disease.
“Maybe they’ll be spared from white-nose. I don’t know. Maybe I’m really clutching at straws and rooting for the bats here — but it’s a possibility,” he said.
Related
Opinion: Who is minding Alberta’s fish and wildlife?
'Cloaked in so much secrecy': Staffing split will hurt Alberta fish and wildlife management, critics say
Wilkinson agreed. “If there’s bats that winter in cracks and crevices in small numbers, it might slow the spread,” she said, adding by the same token, it makes bats harder to track.
Deni Cameron works in agronomy and has been aiming to raise public awareness about how losing bats in Alberta will impact the ecosystem, noting that without them to eat and control insects, farmers will be forced to use more insecticides, affecting important species like bees.
“Insecticides are indiscriminate. They’re going to kill the good bugs and the bad bugs,” said Cameron, adding that she’d like to see more public awareness campaigns, resources, and boots on the ground from the Alberta government.
The province has been participating in the North American Bat Monitoring Program’s acoustic research that helps detect bat activity levels since 2015, and is now also working on a recovery plan with biologists and stakeholders, Wilkinson said.
It’s also working to update its communications efforts.
‘The first sign’: early emergence from hibernation
Jamie Rothenburger, University of Calgary associate professor in Veterinary Medicine and co-regional director of the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative in the Alberta region, said bats infected with the syndrome could have a fluffy white coating on their nose, feet or wings.
With the fungus, bats can be forced out of their hibernation earlier than usual.
“The first sign is actually seeing bats out flying at the wrong time of year, like when it’s still winter. Then, there’s nothing for them to eat. So of course, they’re out of hibernation, they have reduced fat stores, and they often die of dehydration and starvation,” said Rothenburger.
“This is the most severe infectious disease we’ve ever had affecting wildlife in Canada,” she said, noting in some parts of North America 90 to 95 per cent of bat populations were lost.
She said some research suggests that in areas where there is white-nose syndrome, the loss of bats has led to an increase in insecticide and fungicide use.
“At a larger ecological scale, often we don’t fully appreciate all the things that a species does for us until it’s gone.”
Some bats can live more than 30 years, but they generally only have one pup each year, making it difficult to reverse population decline.
In Alberta, it is illegal to enter a cave where bats are hibernating between Sept. 1 and April 30. For those exploring caves, the provincial government also encourages the careful disinfection of equipment because while people aren’t known to be susceptible to the fungus, they can spread it around.
The Little Brown myotis bat, the Northern Long-eared Bat, and the Tri-coloured bat are listed as endangered species in Canada.
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