“Cave-dwelling bat populations in Wisconsin appear to be recovering from White Nose Syndrome, the infamous fungal disease that has wiped out millions of North American bats,” reports The Doomslayer. For the third year in a row, Wisconsin’s bat populations seem to be rising, judging from rising numbers of little brown bats, big brown bats, tricolored bats, and northern long-eared bats.
The Good News Network reports that
cave-roosting bat populations in Wisconsin are recovering from a fungal epidemic…
Introduced to these shores by what were likely cave explorers from Europe, the humidity-loving fungus Psuedogymnoascus destuctans was having deadly effects on cave bats east of the Rockies. Bats are important pollinators for many native species, and their hunting of flying insects can only be a good thing as tropical mosquito-born diseases are becoming something of a normalcy in the US.
A story from Wisconsin Today in 2024 reports, however, that in the state’s two largest roosting sites, the number of bats had gone up in 2023 and in 2024.
Jennifer Redell, a conservation biologist studying Wisconsin’s bats, said in the report that ‘bats in Wisconsin that are surviving with White Nose Syndrome are doing things to reduce the amount of fungus on their body.’
Two months ago, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources conducted the annual bat survey, and sightings topped 25,000 individuals, a growth of more than a thousand since the previous year’s count.
Bats are often depicted as posing the risk of rabies. But only about one person per year dies of rabies contracted from a bat in the U.S. Far more Americans get rabies from a dog.
Bobcats recently returned to New Jersey after being absent from the state for 50 years. Jaguars are proliferating.
The Appalachian grasshopper recently returned to Virginia after being absent for 80 years.
Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs have come back from near extinction
Fish species rebounded off the coast of California due to their young finding a sanctuary in abandoned oil rigs.
