Endangered Species Review and Interim Protections Sought for Little Brown Bats

Scientists and conservation groups filed a formal request today
asking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to determine if little brown
bats, once the most common bat species in the Northeast, need
protection under the Endangered Species Act because of a
fast-spreading, lethal disease called white-nose syndrome.
The disease has already killed more than a million bats in the United
States and scientists say it could wipe out little brown bats in the
Northeast within the next two decades.

"The little brown bat is in imminent danger of
extinction in its northeastern core range due to white-nose syndrome,
and the species is likely in danger of extinction throughout North
America," said Dr. Thomas H. Kunz, a leading authority on bats at
Boston University who coauthored a study earlier this year on the impacts of white-nose syndrome on the little brown bat.

Kunz and another bat scientist, Dr. Jonathan D. Reichard, conducted their own status review
of the species that was submitted along with today's request to the
Fish and Wildlife Service. The review found that the little brown bat is
at grave risk of disappearing from the region because of the impacts
of white-nose syndrome, a disease first documented in upstate New York
in 2006 that has already spread throughout the eastern United States as
well as Quebec and Ontario. In some affected bat colonies in the
Northeast, mortality rates from white-nose syndrome have been nearly
100 percent.

"The little brown bat desperately needs protection under
the Endangered Species Act," said Mollie Matteson, conservation
advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity. "Losing this species
would be a tragedy that would have disastrous consequences for people
and other wildlife."

The bat die-off has caused significant concern among
biologists and conservation groups, not only because of potential
extinction of one or more species but also because the night-flying
mammals play a critical role in keeping insect populations in check.
Based on earlier work by Kunz and others, scientists estimate that the
loss of bats due to white-nose syndrome has, to date, meant
approximately 700 fewer tons of insects consumed per year, including
many pests that attack farm crops and commercial timber. One
consequence of fewer bats may be greater use of pesticides.

Based on the dire threat to the little brown bat from
white-nose syndrome, the scientists and conservation groups today
recommended that the Fish and Wildlife Service place the little brown
bat on the federal endangered species list as an emergency measure
until the agency can complete its own assessment and make a final
ruling.

"If the little brown bat, one of America's most common
and widespread bats, is facing regional, and possibly total, extinction,
imagine the threat to less-adaptable and far-reaching species," said
Nina Fascione, executive director of Bat Conservation International.
"More than half of the 46 U.S. bat species are potentially susceptible
to white-nose syndrome. We must protect the survivors before time runs
out."

Meanwhile, the Fish and Wildlife Service is, until Dec. 26, accepting public comments on its draft plan for addressing white-nose syndrome. And the Service is due to decide on a petition
filed by the Center for Biological Diversity to provide Endangered
Species Act protections for the northern long-eared bat and the eastern
small-footed bat, two other species seriously affected by white-nose
syndrome.

Groups signing on in support of the status assessment
request are Kunz and Reichard's Center for Ecology and Conservation
Biology at Boston University, Friends of Blackwater Canyon, Wildlife
Advocacy Project, Bat Conservation International and the Center for
Biological Diversity.