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Bats help prevent Halloween-style ecology nightmares

It’s getting close to Halloween, so that means an abundance of holiday-related images, like witches, goblins and bats.

Depending with whom you speak, witches and goblins don’t exist. However, bats do – and that’s a good thing.

Bats, you ask? Aren’t they rabies-spreading “rats with wings” that try to bite your neck?

Bats actually are a vital part of the ecosystem. A single bat can eat hundreds of insects in an hour, providing a good deal of pest control without harmful pesticides. Bats are also effective pollinators and seed dispersers.

Bats also are cool animals, being the only mammals that can fly and using echolocation to eat tiny flying insects.

Unfortunately, scientists say natural and human-made threats to bats in Michigan could wipe out certain populations over the next 10 years, according to a recent Associated Press story.

Loss of habitat, wind turbines and a disease-causing fungus are among the culprits. The fungus that causes white-nose syndrome is the bats’ biggest threat, says Allen Kurta, an Eastern Michigan University professor and bat expert.

The fungus forces infected bats to wake up from hibernation frequently and use up their fat stores before winter is over. So they starve to death.

Since 2014, the disease has spread to 14 counties in Michigan, including Dickinson, Keweenaw, Mackinac and Ontonagon counties.

Most susceptible to WNS are big brown bats, little brown bats, tri-colored bats, northern long-eared bats and Indiana bats.

Kurta believes that one or two species, particularly the northern long-eared bat, will be wiped out.

How can bats be helped? The U.S. Forest Service said research by scientists is critical. On a personal level, people can stay out of sites where bats are hibernating and allow bats to live on their property, with live and dead trees with cracks and cavities benefitting bats and other wildlife.

As with many issues, education is crucial, including passing on information on the value of bats and why their continued existence is important.

Imagine a world without bats and the overabundance of insects that would result.

Halloween aside, that’s truly a scary thought.

Mining Journal (Marquette)

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