Officials seek help tracking CT’s bat population
July is the time when young bats in Connecticut try out their wings, sometimes flapping into homes and freaking people out.
“They’re just not very good at being bats yet and they get easily confused,” state wildlife biologist and bat specialist Devaughn Fraser said.
No need to panic, Fraser said. Open a window, dim the lights and the bewildered baby bat eventually will fly out. More importantly, Fraser and other state biologists say they want to hear about bat sightings to gauge effects of a disease and other threats that have slashed bat numbers in Connecticut.
The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s wildlife division asks people who see bats roosting in their houses, barns and other outbuildings to complete a form and send it in, along with any photographs.
The reports help biologists understand how bats are faring, particularly amid the ravages of whitenose syndrome, a fungus that has killed millions of the flying mammals in Connecticut and other states since 2006. The disease has affected six of Connecticut’s nine bat species — little brown, big brown, tri-colored, northern long-eared, eastern small-footed and Indiana.
The irritating fungus grows on the hibernating animals’ muzzles and wings, waking them from their winter sleep and forcing the animals to burn fat stores, which ultimately kills them. Northern longeared bats have proved especially susceptible, and their population in the state has sunk by almost 100 percent. Little brown and tri-colored bats also have been hard hit.
Fraser said this summer and likely next year as well she will be doing intensive audio monitoring to try and detect northern long-eared bats. White-nose syndrome is not going away anytime soon, she said, but bats are developing resistance to the disease.
Still, since most female bats bear only one pup each year, a rebound in the pop ulation will take a long time, Fraser said. And the disease is not the only threat Connecticut’s bats face. Climate change and the related loss of the animals’ insect prey also are cause for concern, Fraser said.
Bats benefit people by eating night flying insects. A single colony of big brown bats can devour about 1.3 million insects in a year — about 9,000 insects per bat. The value to U.S. agriculture averages $22.9 billion annually.
Bats shelter in quarries, mines, aqueducts, barns and other buildings, and caves. Since 2017, DEEP has worked to secure cave and mine entrances with barriers that allow bats passage while preventing human access.