As White-nose Syndrome spreads beyond the northeastern United States, leaving hundreds of thousands of dead bats in its wake, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is urging that no one enter caves in affected or neighboring states except scientists conducting sanctioned research. The request for a voluntary, year-round moratorium on caving in the region is an effort to slow the spread of WNS and buy time to confirm the cause and determine potential solutions for this devastating threat to American bats. The Fish and...more

Old hand-dug water wells often provide a refuge for Rafinesque’s big-eared bats and southeastern myotis when winter temperatures fall in southwestern Arkansas. As natural habitat disappears, these bats have come to depend increasingly on abandoned buildings in summer and on those crumbling old wells during winter cold spells. But many of the the wells have casings that are very low to the ground, raising the risk of unwary humans falling into them. Others are used as local garbage dumps....more

The alarming numbers of bat deaths at wind farms have produced an unusual partnership called the Bats and Wind Energy Cooperative. The collaboration of conservation groups, government agencies and the wind industry is seeking a balance between protecting bat populations and meeting the rapidly growing demand for renewable energy, the Chicago Tribune reports. “We support the development of clean energy, but to make it ‘green’ we have to do everything we can to minimize the...more