The Cariboo-Chilcotin is now part of a new study designed to save bat populations in British Columbia from the deadly White Nose Syndrome (WNS).
The disease is having a devastating impact on bat populations in Eastern Canada and researchers fear the disease will migrate to B.C. within the next 10 years.
In an effort to get a better handle on the B.C. situation, bat specialist Dr. Cori Lausen is conducting winter research in B.C., including the 100 Mile House area.
WNS kills bats while they hibernate during winter.
“Bats are vital to healthy ecosystems, and we depend on them in our forestry and agricultural industries,” Lausen says. “We need them as much as they now need us.”
This past fall, Lausen deployed bat detectors – devices that record bat ultrasound – at strategic places in the Chilcotin region.
She has had the help of local biologists and citizen scientists. Becky Cadsand and Julie Steciw of Ministry of Forest, Lands and Natural Resource Operations (WFLNO) to maintain some of Lausen’s bat detectors deployed near Williams Lake.
Given the difficulties in trying to study, these elusive creatures in winter, Dr. Lausen says little has been known about bat hibernation, especially in Western Canada where there are 16 species and vast landscapes.
She says bats are overwintering in log piles, rock crevices, mines, caves, trees, and even in some buildings.
They remain largely dormant in these cold, but not freezing, winter shelters called hibernacula. Their cold bodies burn very little of their stored fat each day.
Lausen discovered during her earlier research in Southern Alberta that every few weeks bats will break their winter hibernation and fly around in winter for a few minutes or hours at a time.
A decade later, she and her students have uncovered striking new information about what bats do in winter.
In southern and coastal B.C. and even into southeast Alaska, up to eight species of bats have been recorded flying around during winter months, sometimes at temperatures well below freezing, she explains.
In these areas, some bats are finding insects to eat in winter, others are using winter flights to find mates for breeding, and still others switch between roosts as weather conditions change.
With increasing inland latitude and elevation, Lausen says she is finding fewer bats and fewer species flying outside in winter, presumably because of colder conditions and hibernacula entrances have become plugged with snow.
Bat detectors placed deep into caves by volunteers (see BatCaver.org) are showing bats flying during winter do so without leaving the cave.
The core reason all bats warm their bodies up periodically during hibernation to fly around is still not understood, but Lausen hypothesizes all hibernating bats commonly need to prevent muscle deterioration over winter. Spring flights to find insect prey after winter fat stores are used up likely depend on well-maintained muscle tone.
Lausen says she hopes one of her next students will tackle this question.
Meanwhile, Lausen says she looks forward to downloading the data from this winter’s bat detectors. In early May, she will collect her bat detectors and analyze the data.
“As we put these pieces of the puzzle together, we will learn enough about B.C. bats to help them in the fight they face against White Nose Syndrome.”
