It's relatively easy to stir people to action to protect some endangered species -- the cute ones with cute babies.
Pandas, polar bears, baby seals, tiger cubs, etc. They just have those adorable faces.
It's not as easy to get people worked up about other threatened species -- the ones that aren't so cute, the ones people often recoil from. Who wants to snuggle up to a mollusk or a bat?
But those species are often more important to the health of the environment than something you'd buy as a stuffed toy for your child.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ruled today that two species of bats -- the Eastern Small-Footed Bat and the Northern Long-Eared Bat -- may deserve protection under the Endangered Species Act.
Bats may look icky to most people, but their important place in the ecosystem is undisputable.
A recent study published in the journal Science estimated that the value of insect-eating bats’ pest-control services to American farmers is worth $3.7 billion to $53 billion per year. Bats have been documented to eat significant quantities of insects that attack crops, including corn, cotton, cabbage, tomatoes, fruit trees and timber.
But there is a grave threat to these and other species of bats from something called white-nose syndrome.
“Hibernating bats across the eastern United States are dying by the millions,” said Mollie Matteson with the Center for Biological Diversity, which has pushed for increased research funding for the disease and petitioned to ban nonessential human travel in caves on public land. “We hope today’s announcement will serve as a wake-up call for urgent action to save our bats.”
In five years white-nose syndrome, or the fungus suspected to cause it, has spread from upstate New York to 19 states and four Canadian provinces, reaching from Nova Scotia to western Oklahoma. It causes mortality rates of 70 percent to 100 percent in affected bat populations. Biologists now estimate that more than 1 million bats have died from the disease. Eventually, all 25 hibernating bat species in North America may be affected.
“The writing is on the wall,” said Matteson. “If action isn't taken to close caves in uninfected areas, conduct research on treatment and protect bats from other threats, we will lose these two bat species and perhaps many others.”
Bats also eat vast quantities of mosquitos, which is always a good thing.
So hug a bat today. And try to stay away from his cave.