Bat Maternity Season

Though we self impose maternity season here from May 1st - August 31st, we still do inspections and quotes and interior seal outs, etc...

This year I hadn't seen any pups yet but have had a number of folks from across the country report them in the last two weeks. Every year
we get some calls from folks who either did a DIY and trapped the pups inside or hired someone who said they did 100's of these who proceeded
to trap pups inside as well. A few of these folks in my area have stopped offering services apparently either word got around or they just had too
much phone abuse from the folks who suffered with the fallout at their home.

We've had a late lingering winter which seems to have thrown our local area off a bit, though in the southern half of the state I've been getting
pics and info from colleagues that things are in full swing.

I know numerous threads have hit this topic through the years and know there are many opinions and tactics.

Was wondering what states you folks have confirmed pups already this year.

Got a pic of a hoary bat today from a client whose friend got the pic while on the golf course. The hoary was low on a landscape tree in the fairway
with two pups clinging to her belly. Awesome looking bat fur looks like a badger almost in color.

Justin

My son has been seeing pups for about the past two weeks here in the southeast corner of Alabama.

Observing bat maternity season here in Michigan. Anticipate little bundles of joy any day.

I was just watching a huge maternity colony
In a house I bought in the UP. No pups yet, very
Larg colony for around here. I would say 4-500
Bats. One of the main reasons I bought the house.
Yes I'm weird I guess

Nice Kasey!

For the bat obsessed as I am not weird at all!

Thanks for the current responses Dave and Ron!

Haven't seen any 2015 pups yet.

Still seeing a few lone females that wintered over with one of last years pups. I always assumed that these were extremely late born pups and mom stayed behind to raise them after the maternal colony leaves.

June/July is when we see a lot of pups around here.

Justin- are you familiar with this study?

Press Release today from B.C.I.- http://www.batcon.org/resources/media-ed...k-into-the-wild , Bats Successfully Treated for WNS Released Back Into the Wild, Published on May 19, 2015.

There is also a hot link to the full press release.

Thanks for the link , very interesting

Ron,

I am, the folks involved are from a variety of state, federal, non profit and university groups.

A good study showing some promise in the fight against white-nose syndrome (WNS).

One of the major hurdles in fighting this fungus that causes WNS is that in order to test treatments you must
do so first in a lab with live bats.

That part is the norm for many wildlife diseases of course.

Then however comes the major issue of where do you test the treatment in the field?

Simply spraying anti-fungals in cave environments always seems and did to me incredibly logical, lets just kill the
fungus and be done with it and start them on the road to recovery.

The problem is that the anti-fungal could kill beneficial fungus, other microorganisms and effect food and ecological
chains within cave, mine and other natural environments.

Through the years as most know many things have been introduced to kill other things, the result is usually you have
to try to then kill those things to rebalance a system that is now ruined.

Folks are very punchy about the ecological ramifications though everyone involved in this fight knows that field testing
and real world trials have to be done soon as many areas are either devoid of certain species (little brown bat, tri colored bat,
northern long-eared bat) or they are nearing being gone.

This isn't just confirmed with cave counts during winter, this is on the landscape acoustic monitoring where folks used to record
bat calls as common and now thanks to this introduced fungus, they are gone or nearly gone.

Wouldn't be so bad if bats gave birth every month and raised 5-6 young each time, they would bounce right back, but the maternity
season effort is limited to 1 to at most 3 pups with 1-2 being most common, once a year of course as we all know and thus recovering
6-7 million plus bats is a 30+ year estimated time frame if they don't completely become lost before the fight is over.

Some bats are showing hope, there are some reports of some returning each year, but we are talking handfuls compared to caves full.

Devastating and as a guy who 4 years ago didn't know a bat from his elbow biologically speaking, I and my wife have become invested in
them and this issue as heavily as we can.

It is linked to more in nature than we all might guess, not just crop pest management but forest pest management, vector species (mosquitoes)
management and so many food webs and chains that if they go, it will become a problem everyone will care about (or at least those with knowledge
of the natural world).

More positive news in field trials is a good thing, but a long road to go and funding is still very very limited compared to other species that we
support as a country.

Sprayed a house and woke up a little brown sleeping by the chimney today.

We're close to maternity. First week in June I believe.

I had white-nosed syndrome from living in Wisconsin. Ten days in Hawaii cleared it right up!

WNS is showing us evolution in progress. Those bats that choose to winter in caves catch the fungus and die. Those who choose houses and small groups live. Whatever is the deciding factor for the choice is going to get passed on.

Talking to guys who have pre WNS experience here, bats are coming back... Just not in the caves.

Eaten,

The trick with this issue is that WNS is a forced evolution due to a human introduced fungus brought from Europe to bats.

That makes it sure hard for them to catch up or overcome.

Your right though we are going to see who lives and who dies but that may very well be entire species.

I think many people doubt we can lose an entire or multiple species in modern day America however extinction happens all the time globally and introduced predators, disease and plants are often responsible.

The other trick is that while guys may say they see recovery, but in what species, in what area and in what numbers?

There may be increased numbers of non impacted species like big Browns who seem to be exploiting the loss of others, however
anyone suggesting little brown, Tru colored or northern long-eared bats should be contacting thei state and federal biologists because that would be a major find.

With our industry we have to be careful to know that we may get more calls for a variety of reasons but since we exclude how would we know a population is increasing? We don't ever look at the same colony and we don't survey on te landscape with a rigorous protocol for statistics and findings.

I hope this doesn't sound like I wouldn't like be to see this disease a memory versus a clear and present danger to bats, I hear far too often though from within our ranks that recovery is happening when the best science in the country says that isn't the case.

We play a critical role in educating the public and helping bats through good exclusion and following maternity seasons. We should be cautious about suggesting increases in populations without being very sure of what we are saying.

WNS gets little funding and if politicians hear things are getting better when they aren't yet they can pull or redirect precious funding, which is why I think it is critical to know before declaring it so.

Just my personal feelings but state and fed folks and all the others involved in this are desperately trying to find answers so if guys see these species in number they should share that with their agency personnel or at least their bat biologists if they have them.

Best,

Justin

I'm about 45 minutes from Howe's Cave, where WNS was discovered on this continent. When I went back to school for wildlife mgt I went in the same community as the cave. Bats were a large part of the curriculum. I'm not going to disagree with anything you wrote.

I don't believe that the annual census' of the caves tell the entire story though. I believe there are 2 populations of the bats. 1 was decimated. The other, not so much.

We see mostly little browns here. Out west the big browns start showing up. Indianas are supposedly in the Champlain valley, but I've never seen them.

Eaten,

I agree there are some truths that will only come out on the landscape and the other aspect as you know is that not all caves and locations of overwintering are known.

Makes it tough for folks to truly get a handle as things keep popping up. With the fungus just reported in eastern OK folks in the west are starting to worry more than before.

An awful devastating issue I'm sure we can both agree.

It will as you say change the face of bat ecology forever, even if just in composition of species by region and locality.

Lots of things will change.

Sad but inevitable at this point I believe despite new strides this will ultimately come down to who survives and who doesn't.

Best,

Justin

We are getting quite a few calls from homeowners that are trying to do their own bat work and end up locking the bats inside the structures.

One project I was on last week had a colony, or what's left of one, that has been shut in since last fall sometime. I was told from the owner that bats had been inside this attic for 50 years that they have lived their.

It is common to hear around here that someone had bats inside a home, garage, shop, etc., and we just "fixed" the hole. This behavior alone has to be a significant factor in overall bat mortality.

Just today got some good photos of a coupla pups hanging on mama bet.