Protecting a Species - Little Brown Bat
The little brown bat is a secondary trophic consumer in their habitats, mainly consuming insects and spiders. If the little brown bat population were to decrease the ecosystem would be off-balance with a large swell in the surviving insect population that would otherwise be controlled by the bats. This could lead to increases in the mosquito population due to the lack of natural mosquito predators. Mosquitos are problematic due to the nuisance caused by their blood feeding as well as the possibility of spreading diseases.
The lack of insect predators could also have a negative effect on the surrounding farming industry. Without bats to eliminate large amounts of pests crops would be more susceptible to insect consumption. This could lead to farmers being more dependent on pesticides, thus opening up the environment to toxic chemical runoff, or to crop loss.
Without bats in the ecosystem other species would feel the strain. Owls depend on bats as a staple of their diets and without them a crucial piece of the local food web would be missing. This could lead to a decrease in the owl population, or it could lead to owls preying more heavily on another source of prey that causes a drastic drop in the population of said prey. Losing a crucial member of the ecosystem would lead to an imbalance that would affect the entirety of the environment.
3 ways humans could be affecting the bats’ habitats:
a) Pesticides harm bats by poisoning, eliminating, or reducing the insects they depend on for sustenance. According to the Canadian Wildlife Federation bats can be killed when farms are sprayed in the early evenings when bats begin their hunting. Heavy-duty chemicals from farms can also find their way into water runoff and pollute nearby water sources which bats require for hydration.
b) Encroachment of shorelines and other habitats is another way humans affect the habitats of bats. Bats nest on shorelines and in large trees including dead and dying ones. They are reliant on the plants found on shorelines and forests to attract insects. When humans clear shorelines or trees they are destroying bat nesting spaces as well as sources of food.
c) Wind turbines have become an increasing factor in recent years. Like birds many bats fall victim to wind turbines every year. When erecting a turbine the migratory paths of birds and bats is important to take into account. Wind turbines can also change behaviour in bats as well as birds as they have to take the threat into account and navigate alternative paths through what was once a familiar environment.
The most gruesome effect wind turbines can have on bats is causing barotrauma which occurs when a bat flies too close to a turbine. Barotrauma occurs when a change in air pressure damages body tissue. The moving blades of the turbines cause nearby air pressure to drop, and any bat flying close by can suffer lung damage as a result.
3. Protection and Breeding
a) Endangered species can be protected, allowed, and encouraged to reproduce through habitat protection. Another method to achieve this is through human interference such as modifying habitats to remediate deteriorating conditions or providing artificial environments to stabilize or preserve a population.
b) In the case of the little brown bat preserving habitats and optimizing hibernation conditions is a better method to protect the population. This reasoning expands to preserving not only the little brown bat’s survival in its ecosystem, but all the cohabitants of said environment. As humans we are already unwisely and hastily infringing on the surrounding environment with each passing year. By protecting the entire landscape that these creatures utilize the need to breed through human intervention could be avoided. There are many reasons for maintaining natural reproduction and sovereignty in a species. The outcome of human intervention often has unforeseen and unaccounted for consequences that could drastically affect an ecosystem. While the chance is still there habitat preservation is the best option to securing the protection and growth of the little brown bat population.
4. Controlling white-nose syndrome.
The measures taken to combat white-nose syndrome such as spraying caves with fungicide or installing heaters to thwart the fungus that grows in cold conditions do not seem ecologically sustainable.
During hibernation in the winter the body temperature of bats drops around to that of the outside. Waking up during hibernation could be fatal to bats as their energy expenditure upon awakening uses up their stored food reserves.
Since hibernation is not static, there is an arousal state in hibernation in which bats warm up and bring their body temperatures back to a normal level. Introducing heating lamps to kill fungus that grows in cooler temperatures could have the unintended repercussion of bats entering a state of arousal too early into their hibernation or having too high a hibernating temperature to begin with since they match their body temperature to that of the outside. If the outside is warmer than the evolutionary winter cold the bat is used to relying on that could be problematic in terms of reaching an adequate state of hibernation. Temperature is of the utmost importance during hibernation and torpor for all animals as it is vital that food storage is preserved to last the entire hibernation period.
Spraying caves with fungicides has also proven to be ineffective due to how sensitive bats are to chemicals. According to Emma Hiolski in the article “Battling a Deadly Bat Fungus” harsh chemicals and repeated interference can stress bats during what is already a difficult time. The scents from fungicides can cause bats to awaken, which as previously touched upon, can be fatal. Even a modified approach using treatment-containing vapour was enough to be disturbing to bats.
wind turbines and barotrauma - https://letstalkscience.ca/educational-resources/stem-in-context/how-do-wind-farms-affect-birds-and-bats
https://cwf-fcf.org/en/resources/encyclopedias/fauna/mammals/little-brown-bat.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3380050/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5879480/
