The Connecticut DEP Wildlife Division is asking the public to help survey bats this summer.

A disease known as White Nose Syndrome, ("WNS") has killed over 1 million bats in the US. The DEP wants us to help determine how this disease is affecting the bat population in Connecticut. The condition, named for a previously unknown fungus, first appeared on bats in upstate New York caves in 2006 and has now spread from the northeast to states south and west as far as Virginia and Tennessee and into Ontario, Canada. There is no method at this time for curbing the disease and many questions remain unanswered. Furthermore, most bat species give birth to only one pup per year, which makes it difficult for affected populations to recover quickly from the devastating effects.

However, at the Annual White-nose Syndrome Symposium in Little Rock, Arkansas researchers reported some very good news. Surveys of bat populations from 2007 thru 2011 in the northeast showed that while many hibernating colonies suffered declines of 50 % to over 90 % in the first two years after the arrival of WNS, the existing populations may be stabilizing. Researchers believe that the survey implies that survivors of the initial infection may survive -- thus the potential to re-establish the original populations over time. Connecticut has eight species of the eleven hundred known species of bats in the world. Here, WNS is spreading and affecting species including the Little Brown Bat, at one time the most common bat in the northeast, and the Indiana Bat, which is already on the Federal Endangered Species List. Some fear that the Little Brown Bat faces regional and possibly total extinction. However, researchers at the Arkansas conference reported that Little Brown Bats with severe wing damage after hibernation, when recaptured later, showed significant healing within as little as 2 weeks and have survived to the following year.

This makes it even more important to observe bats during the summer period to find out vital information on how Connecticut bats survived the winter: if their numbers are decreasing in the areas where they are usually seen and also how the birth rate is being affected by the disease. To this end, the DEP is asking the public to take site surveys of bats in our area and to provide them the information that is gathered. This is clearly something that groups and individuals can do in our area, which, with its marshes and woodland ponds, provides important areas for bats during the summer months. Maureen Heidtmann and Suzanne Haig are helping coordinate this effort in the lower Connecticut River valley. We want to get this information and the site survey to towns throughout the area. Please take the time to report information as indicated on the form provided. Also, please make up printed copies to take to local stores, libraries, town halls, and community centers in your area and let us know so we can report this progress. The Connecticut River Estuary Regional Planning Agency (CRERPA) and local Land Trusts are also involved in this effort.

Please return Survey Data to:

Bat Maternity Colony Count

CT DEP Wildlife Division

Sessions Woods W.M.A

P.O. Box 1550

Burlington, CT 06013

or Fax: 860-395-1404

and we will mail them to the DEP for you.

For more information on bats in our area contact Maureen Heidtmann at winghand2001@yahoo.com To help us with circulating these surveys in our area contact: Suzanne Haig at smhaig@snet.net