Tiny bats provide 'glimmer of hope' against a fungus that threatened entire species

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Jul 6, 2023 • 7 min read

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Alyssa Bennett holds a dead Bat in a Cave in Dorset, Vt. on May 2, 2023. Scientists who study bat species that have been affected by the white nose syndrome fungus, which has killed thousands of bats in North America, report a small ray of hope for the disease. Experts report that more bats hibernating in Vermont's largest bat cave, which is the largest cave in New England are tolerating disease and transmitting protective traits to their young.

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Alyssa Bennett (small mammals biologist, Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife) points out a bat that was found in a Dorset cave on May 2, 2023. Scientists who study bat species that have been affected by white nose syndrome - a fungus which has killed millions in North America - say there's a small glimmer for hope. Experts report that more bats hibernating in Vermont's largest bat cave, which is the largest cave in New England are tolerating disease and transmitting protective traits to their young.

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Alyssa Bennett is a small mammal biologist with the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife. She stretches the wing of a bat that has died in a cave near Dorset, Vermont, on May 2, 2020. Scientists who study bat species that have been affected by white nose syndrome (a fungus responsible for killing millions of bats in North America), say there's a small glimmer good news.

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Alyssa Bennett inspects a bat that has died in a cave near Dorset, Vermont, on May 2, 2030. Scientists who study bat species that have been affected by the white nose syndrome fungus, which has killed thousands of bats in North America, report a small ray of hope for the disease. Experts report that more bats hibernating in Vermont's largest bat cave, which is the largest cave in New England are tolerating disease and transmitting protective traits to their young.

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On May 2, 2023, bats are roosting in a cave near Dorset, Vermont. Scientists who study bat species that have been affected by the white nose syndrome fungus, which has killed thousands of bats in North America, report a small glimmer for the disease. Experts report that more bats hibernating in Vermont's largest bat cave, which is the largest cave in New England are tolerant of the disease. They also pass protective traits to their young.

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Laura Kloepper (right), a visiting assistant Professor at the University of New Hampshire Department of Biological Sciences and Center for Acoustics Research and Behavior Lab carries out research in a cave for bats in Dorset, Vermont, on May 2,2023. Scientists who study bat species that have been affected by white nose syndrome - a fungus responsible for killing millions of bats in North America - say there's a small glimmer to the disease.

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Laura Kloepper is a visiting assistant at the University of New Hampshire Department of Biological Sciences and Center for Acoustics Research and Behavior Lab. She conducts research in a cave for bats in Dorset (Vt.) on May 2, 2023. Scientists who study bat species that have been affected by white nose syndrome - a fungus responsible for killing millions of bats in North America - say there's a small glimmer to the disease.

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Alyssa Bennett is a small mammal biologist with the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife. She reaches towards bats roosting in a Dorset, Vt. cave on May 2, 2023. Scientists who study bat species that have been affected by the white nose syndrome fungus, which has killed thousands of bats in North America, report a small glimmer for the disease. Experts report that more bats hibernating in Vermont's largest bat cave, which is the largest cave in New England are tolerating disease and transmitting protective traits to their young.

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Researchers shed light on bat clusters that roost in a Dorset, Vt. cave on May 2, 2023. Scientists who study bat species that have been affected by the white nose syndrome fungus, which has killed thousands of bats in North America, report that more bats hibernating at the Vermont cave tolerate the disease and pass protective traits to their young.

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On May 2, 2023, bats are roosting in a cave near Dorset, Vermont. Scientists who study bat species that have been affected by the white nose syndrome fungus, which has killed thousands of bats in North America, report a small glimmer for the disease. Experts report that more bats hibernating in Vermont's largest bat cave, which is the largest cave in New England are tolerating disease and transmitting protective traits to their young.

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DORSET (Vt.) (AP). Tens of thousands furry, brown creatures move in a damp, cool cave in Vermont.

Little brown bats went into hibernation in the fall of last year after a deadly fungus decimated their numbers. They are waking up in early May and detaching themselves from their rock-wall roosts to make their first tentative flight in search of moths, flying insects and beetles that they eat.

Scientists found the first North American outbreak of the fungus responsible for white nose syndrome in the deep passages of a Vermont mountain. The cave floor is littered with bat bones, which look like lawnmower cuts. You'll see tiny skulls if you look closely.

The bats continue to die.

A fungus that is invasive was first discovered in a cave in upstate New York in 2006. This was a short flight away from the Dorset colony in Vermont. The fungus awakens bats out of hibernation and sends them into the freezing winter air to search for food. They either die from exposure or starvation, as the insect population at that time is too low to sustain them.

The Dorset bats are smaller than mice and weigh about three pennies. They skitter along the cave walls, or cling together for warmth. The health of some bat species suggests that they are adapting to a fungus which has killed millions in North America.

Alyssa Bennet, a small-mammal biologist with the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife, said: 'That is really significant because it appears to be a stronghold, where these bats survive and then spread out throughout New England during the summer.' She has been studying bats and the white nose syndrome since more than a decade.

Bennett said, as the critters flew and swooped all around her.

It will take some time. The female little brown bats only have one pup per year. Bennett explained that while some pups can survive into their teens and 20s, 60% to 70% only make it past their first year.

Scientists estimate that between 70 and 90 thousand bats hibernate at the Dorset Cave, which is the largest concentration of bats in New England. In the 1960s when the cave was last surveyed, their numbers had dropped from 300,000 bats to 350,000.

The number of bats in the cave has dropped, but it's not clear how much. Biologists who visited the cave in 2009 or 2010, noted that the ground was covered with dead bats.

It is thought that the fungus responsible for white nose syndrome was brought to North America by bats from Europe. The fungus is named for the white, fluffy spots that it leaves on bat noses and other body parts. It has killed 90 or more percent of bat populations in North America.

A report released by the North American Bat Conservation Alliance last month found that 81 out of 154 bat species known in the United States are severely at risk due to white-nose infection, climate changes and habitat loss.

It's important. It matters.

Scientists knew for years that certain little brown bats survived being exposed to fungus despite a mortality rate which was thought to be able to eradicate them. Bennett says that while Dorset's little-brown bats have survived, some other species, such as northern long-eared and tricolor bats which were once found there, are now almost impossible to find.

Bennett, a Dorset little brown bat expert, said: 'There is something special about these bats.' We can't say for sure, but genetic research we've done together suggests that these bats have certain factors related to hibernation that allow them to survive this disease. They also pass on those traits to their offspring.

Winifred Frick is the chief scientist of Bat Conservation International. She has tracked white nose syndrome across North America and has found it in 38 states. Each time she hears about a new outbreak, it is a "gut punch".

Colorado reported its first bats infected earlier this year.

Frick is pleased that bats have begun to return in some areas, where once carcasses piled up.

She said, 'That is a real glimmer hope'.

Other areas near the first white nose bat discovery also report stable or possibly increasing numbers of little browns.

Greg Turner, state mammal specialist for the Pennsylvania Game Commission, estimated that Pennsylvania lost 99.9% its population following white nose strike. The numbers are still very low but they are slowly increasing in certain places. In 2016, there were only seven bats at an old mine in Blair County. In 2016, there were more that 330 bats.

Turner replied, "I feel pretty comfortable." We won't be staring at the barrel of extinction forever.

According to his research, bats that hibernate in colder temperatures are better able to fight white nose because it grows slower.

Scientists still do not understand why some animals survive and others die.

Turner explained that by choosing colder temperatures they are helping themselves to preserve fat, preserve energy, and also get less disease.

There are still worrying trends. Pennsylvania's bat populations are a fraction of what they were before the white nose invasion. Turner and his team see more bats in some places, but fewer females.

In Virginia, the population has plummeted by more than 95%. However, some colonies are stabilizing or growing slightly in number. This is happening only at a fraction of sites that were once monitored. Rick Reynolds, non-game mammal scientist with the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, confirmed this.

Reynolds wrote in an email: 'We are still optimistic, but the road ahead is long and uncertain.'

The bats in Vermont have discovered a cold spot that allows the growth of fungus to be slowed.

Bennett works with Laura Kloepper from the University of New Hampshire to better understand the population. They're using acoustic modelling to estimate the population this year, comparing sound recordings and thermal imaging. Next year, they'll use the same method to survey to see if there has been any change.

Kloepper stated, 'We want to know what we can do to help save bats not just in this cave but around the globe.