Photo credit: Keith Shannon, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service [public domain]. The bat in the photo was safely captured and tagged by biologists as part of ongoing U.S. Fish & Wildlife research into its habits and lifecycle.
If this tiny critter, the Northern long-eared bat, is only about 3 inches long with a typical weight of only a third of an ounce, just think how teeny those little teeth are! However, no matter how small they are, bats are an incredibly important component of our Vermont ecosystem. According to Ethan Tapper, Chittenden County forester, Vermont’s bats on average can eat about half their body weight in insects in an hour, with some bats eating up to 1,000 insects per hour! (1) The Northern long-eared bat prefers a diet of moths, but will also eat leafhoppers, flies, caddisflies and beetles.
As many of us know, bat populations in Vermont have been dramatically decreasing, primarily because of white-nose bat syndrome, first discovered a couple hours away near Albany, New York in 2007. This fungus has killed millions of bats, sometimes wiping out 90-100% of a given colony. And the population of Northern long-eared bats has been especially hard-hit--estimated to have been decimated by up to 97%. (2) Recently scientists at the University of Illinois found that a forest without bats had three times as many insects and five times as much defoliation as a forest with bats, which could make the forests and their trees more vulnerable to other stressors such as invasive species and climate change. (3)[3]
But, holy Batman, help is on the way! This week, on November 29, 2022, the federal government added the Northern long-eared bat to the federally endangered species list, with reclassification taking effect January 30, 2023. The conditions of the Endangered Species Act require that federal agencies consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to insure that funded or authorized projects like timber harvests, wind turbines, prescribed fires, and highway construction will not harm an endangered species’ existence. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has already allocated $46 million to combat white-nose syndrome, including funds to help develop a vaccine against the syndrome. But all of us can help this teeny creature, and other bats, by keeping forests intact, because the Northern long-eared bat prefers tree roosts in the summer, especially in tree cavities or under loose bark. In the winter, they use caves or mines for hibernation so it is also important not to disturb their winter homes. And please, don't use pesticides on your property. Besides killing the insects that the bats need to survive, some insecticides such as DDE get stored in a female bat's fat reserves, and can be passed through her milk to her pups (4) (yup, bats are mammals just like us humans...but unlike us, they can fly and, in fact, are the only flying mammal).
[1] (1) https://mcusercontent.com/58398f7a782118e355bf99377/files/1bba9a23-edbf-3c34-3c57-0cff79bc2909/Managing_Forests_For_Bats_November_2022.pdf [2] (2) https://www.wcax.com/2022/11/29/us-bat-species-devastated-by-fungus-now-listed-endangered/ [3] (3) hhttps://aces.illinois.edu/news/bats-protect-young-trees-insect-damage-three-times-fewer-bugs
(4) https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/DEEP/wildlife/pdf_files/outreach/fact_sheets/NorthernLong-earedBat.pdfttps://aces.illinois.edu/news/bats-protect-young-trees-insect-damage-three-times-fewer-bug