Bats Are In Decline...
...but you can help!
The Problem
Bats have several characteristics that make them vulnerable to disturbance. Many species roost in large colonies, an adaptation that renders large numbers of individual bats vulnerable to the same catastrophe. For some species, there are only a few roosts for all the individuals of one species, making them particularly vulnerable. Bats hibernate and disturbance during this time period can cause significant losses of fat reserves which can lead to starvation before hibernation ends and food is available again.
The industrial countries of the world have seen steady and sometimes drastic declines in bat populations over the last 15 to 20 years. Bats have died at the hands of collectors and curious tourists. Pesticide poisoning from eating contaminated insects has caused the death of millions of bats. Fear, superstition, and lack of knowledge have led to massive eradication campaigns by individuals and even national governments. Cutting old trees for firewood destroys roosting sites. Wholesale forest cutting to supply our needs for wood fiber and lumber drastically reduces natural habitat. Agricultural practices that favor large areas of a single crop year after year also reduce bat populations in an area.
What can you do to help?
First, recognize Wisconsin bats as a unique and natural part of our world. Think of them as friends that help maintain the dynamic balance in nature. This may be especially easy to do on humid summer nights when the mosquitoes are buzzing and biting. When mosquitoes are abundant, a little brown bat can catch up to 600 in one hour.
Don't kill bats. If a bat should get into your home, open the windows or a door and allow it to find its own way out. If it cannot, wait until it has landed and then, using a glove or towel, gently catch the bat and release it outside. If you want to get roosting bats out of an attic or other area, the best solution for you and the bats is to exclude them. This can be done by finding the entry points and sealing them when the bats are out after they have left for the nightly feeding or in the fall after they have migrated to a hibernating area.
- Work for laws to protect all bats, even common ones, at the state and federal levels.
- Work for laws that reduce pesticide use and encourage biological controls.
- Push for agricultural practices that include diversified crops and crop rotation, not vast monocultures.
- Work to save bat habitat whether it be feeding areas such as marshes or hibernacula such as mines or bat roosts such as caves.
- You can build bat houses in your yard. Europeans have been doing this successfully for many years.
- Learn the truth about bats and pass it on to your relatives, your friends, and your neighbors.
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