What is Happening to Our Bats? Find Out at URWA's Wake Up Call Breakfast Program on May 5th

Despite their spooky reputations, bats are tremendously helpful to people. All nine species of bats found in New Jersey are insectivores. They feed at night on flying insects, including mosquitoes. A single little brown bat can eat 3,000 mosquito-sized insects a night, and a colony of 150 big brown bats can eat enough cucumber beetles to save farmers almost a billion dollars annually in crop damages and pesticide costs!

Bats are fascinating creatures that are just beginning to be appreciated by the general population in our country. They are the only true flying mammals, and they use echolocation to locate and catch their prey. Bats are particularly vulnerable to pollution and pesticides, so their presence or absence can tell us a lot about the overall health of the local environment. Unfortunately, bat populations are declining at an alarming rate. As is the case with many species of wildlife, bats have been on the losing end of many real estate deals as native habitats have been transformed into homes, shopping centers, office parks and roadways for humans. In recent years, a new threat to bats has emerged.
In 2006, hibernating bats in a cave west of Albany, New York were found coated with a chalky fungus that caused them to interrupt their hibernation and burn up their fat reserves. Since then, the condition has killed more than 1 million bats in the Northeast. The U.S. Geological Survey has called the bat die-off "the most precipitous decline of North American wildlife caused by infectious disease in recorded history." The affliction has been named "white nose syndrome" due to the white fungus observed around the nose of some of the affected bats. Infected bats often emerge too soon from hibernation and are often seen flying around in midwinter. These bats usually freeze or starve to death.

MacKenzie Hall, a Biologist with the Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey, will speak with interested community members about New Jersey's bat populations at a breakfast meeting hosted by the Upper Raritan Watershed Association on Wednesday, May 5th. She will also explain how residents can become "citizen scientists" by participating in summertime research to gather information about roosting areas. Information collected will help biologists document roosting locations and help to create a range map for some species of New Jersey bats.

URWA's  Wake Up Call Breakfast: What is Happening to New Jersey's Bats?  will take place on Wednesday, May 5th from 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at the Jam Café, which is located at89 Main Street in Peapack.  The cost to attend is $15 per person, and includes breakfast.  Please contact Kate Deans at 908-234-1852 ext. 16 or kate@urwa.org to register.