Endangered status proposed to protect 3 bat species in state
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Ten years after the onset of a disease that has killed millions of bats, the Pennsylvania Game Commission last week took preliminary steps to declare three bat species endangered in the state.
Populations of the Northern long-eared, tri-colored and little brown bat have plummeted since the discovery of white-nose syndrome in Pennsylvania in 2008. Believed to have entered North America through popular caving sites, the disease prompts the growth of a fungus on the bats’ faces and wings while in hibernation. The fungus causes an irritation that repeatedly awakens the bats. The awakenings cause the bats to expend huge amounts of stored energy during winter months when energy can’t be replenished. Because the insects they eat are not active, the bats starve. Humans cannot be infected with white-nose syndrome.
The environmental value of bats can’t be underestimated. Each bat consumes roughly 900,000 to 1 million insects per year. In 2012, the Game Commission moved to protect the three bat species with endangered status. Timber, oil, coal and gas industries voiced concerns about oversight and job loss, legislators demanded more time for discussion and the proposal was withdrawn. Now those species are being reconsidered for endangered status.
“We cannot look the other way as bats tumble toward extinction,” Bryan Burhans, Game Commission executive director, said in a statement. “This agency has statutory and state constitutional commitments to represent and conserve all wildlife for today and tomorrow.”
When animals are statelisted as endangered or threatened, industries are required to alter projects that might disturb those species. In the case of the bats, the Pennsylvania Natural Diversity Inventory would continue to monitor industrial sites within 300 meters of recent maternity roosts, hibernacula or locations where threatened or endangered bats were captured.
If the measure is approved, 34 new hibernation sites and 112 maternity sites LAST WEEK: Should the U.S. Congress vote to reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund? 77% Yes 23% No — 1,1110 responses — The poll is an unscientific tally of web postings generated by CivicScience. will be added to the Pennsylvania Natural Diversity Inventory, and the Game Commission will have sole authority to declare potential impacts on little brown and tri-colored bats. The agency would share oversight responsibility for Northern long-eared bats with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Dan Brauning, Game Commission wildlife diversity division chief, said the bats have lost more than 97 percent of their historic populations in Pennsylvania. They’re slow to reproduce — most deliver just one pup per year. A Game Commission estimate determined that even if state endangered status protections were fully enforced, it would take the bats more than 100 years to return to 2008 population levels.
“Extinction is not yet out of the question,” Mr. Brauning said. “Their need for additional protections is obvious and overdue. For the Game Commission to do anything less would be recklessly irresponsible.”