Four winters after its discovery near Albany, New York, White-nose Syndrome – a still-mysterious but deadly threat to American bats – has spread across New Jersey and Pennsylvania and into West Virginia. West Virginia now reports WNS at multiple caves. If this is confirmed, BCI Founder Merlin Tuttle said, “America’s most important remaining hibernacula for endangered Indiana myotis and gray myotis could be threatened within two years or less. Failure to find a solution could prove devastating.”...more

When millions of Mexican free-tailed bats swirl out from Bracken Bat Cave on a summer evening, their fluttering wings spread an audible whisper over the Texas Hill Country. Coachwhip snakes attack the emerging bats at the cave’s rocky entrance, while hawks and owls dive into the immense columns of that ribbon across the twilight sky. After their hours-long emergence, the freetails spend the night hunting insects, including many that prey on crops. By the time they return at dawn...more

Ten species of bats find homes on the 160,700 acres of the U.S. Army’s Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Two of them – Rafinesque’s big-eared bats and southeastern myotis – are considered rare, with populations that are believed to declining. The Fayetteville Observer says the post has been working since 2003 to monitor and protect those species. “It’s general stewardship,” Fort Bragg Wildlife Biologist Janice Patten told the newspaper. “It’s also a requirement for federal...more