Conservation Concerns
Habitat Loss
Bats need three things to thrive: water, food, and shelter. Habitat disturbance can affect all three of these.
- Food - Saskatchewan bats eat insects, but prefer native insects. Native insects are threatened by the removal or pollution of natural environments, such as grasslands or forest strands. Without native insects, bats will suffer.
- Shelter - Many bats live in trees, particularly dead trees called snags. Removing strands of trees, alive or dead, removes a crucial habitat for bats.
- Water - Removal or pollution of water bodies, such as natural wetlands, can both reduce the native insects available for bats, and also hurt the bats directly.
Climate Change
Climate change increases extreme weather events. These events, such as forest fires or heat waves, can kill bats. Bats like warm roosts such as bat boxes, but when the weather reaches above 40°C, they may over heat and die.
White-Nose Syndrome
White-Nose Syndrome is a wildlife disease that kills hibernating bats. Millions of bats have been killed by this nasty fungus, resulting in several species of bats, including the Little Brown Bat and Northern Long-Eared Bat to be listed as endangered across Canada.
Learn how White-Nose Syndrome kills bats below.
Wind Energy
Wind turbines can kill bats that fly too near to the blades. All three of the migrating bats in Saskatchewan are endangered, in part, due to deaths from flying into wind turbines.
A Weighty Wildlife Disease: White-Nose Syndrome
Hurting Hibernating Bats
White-Nose Syndrome is a disease caused by the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans. While it has not been observed to affect any other animal (including humans) it has been causing devastation to bat populations across North America, particularly affecting species with smaller individuals.
P destructans grows on the wings and face of bats, resulting in the eponymous "white nose", and damage to the wing membrane.
It is believed that irritations and wing damage cause the bats to expend more energy overwinter, essentially resulting in starvation.
Where did it come from?
The fungus that causes white-nose syndrome is common in Asia and Europe. (Though it appears their bats are not severely harmed by it.)
It is thought that human activity introduced the fungus to North American caves by 2006, starting in or around New York, and spreading ever since. It has now been detected in most U.S. states and Canadian provinces.