A NEW HOPE TRANSFORMING A TOURIST SITE SCIENCE & EDUCATION INTHE FIGHT AGAINST WNS? INTO A HIGH-TECH BAT HOUSE PROTECT BATS IN RUSSIA WWW.BATCO N.ORG SUMMER 2013 BATSBATSBAT CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL AA RareRare AmazingAmazing&& AfricanAfrican BatBat THE MEMO from our E XECUTIVE D IRECTOR ‘Kiss Mother Nature Goodbye’ o you remember those signs? In the corridor to Austin are not far off. The sky over Bracken decade or two after the first Earth Day in is still pretty dark, the surrounding lands are open and D 1970, it was common to see “Kiss Mother natural – but not for much longer. We’re in a race to Nature Goodbye” scrawled on large, rural protect as much land as possible around land-for-sale signs and on billboards Bracken Cave and other bat maternity promising that a new housing develop- caves in the Hill Country while there’s ment or shopping mall was coming soon. still a little time. I don’t see that kind of graffiti much Our website has all you need to know anymore, but I’m reminded of it every about the current threat to Bracken (see time some favorite piece of woods or pas- page 15 in this issue of BATS) and the ture is rezoned and put up for sale. Hu- many reasons why a proposed manity’s explosion across the landscape development directly under the nightly in the past six decades and the resultant flight path of 10 to 15 million bats is a loss of thousands of plant and animal species, even bad idea. But this is just the first of many challenges entire ecosystems, is the great environmental tragedy coming at Bracken, and just one example of the pres- of our time. Even climate change is theoretically re- sures bats face in every country of the world. “We can’t versible. But as the other old saying goes: “Extinction ignore Mother Nature. It always has consequences is forever.” when we do,” Texas State Representative Lyle Larson Most of you know by now that Bracken Cave in the said after introducing a bill to promote an ecological Texas Hill Country is under threat. Ten to 15 million study of the Bracken Cave area before approving female Mexican free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) further developments. migrate from Mexico and points south every spring to Joni Mitchell warned us in song that we don’t know give birth in Bracken, making it the largest gathering of what we’ve got ’til it’s gone. But with your help and mammals in the world. For perhaps as long as 10,000 that of your family and friends and of many local years, female freetails and their pups have been stream- citizens and concerned public officials, we just might ing out of the cave each night during the spring, summer find out in time – this time. and early fall, taking three to four hours to leave the For more information on Bracken Cave and what cave, then returning each morning. It’s a ritual that pre- you can do to help preserve it for future generations of dates the invention of agriculture, cities and civilization. bats and people, please visit Now the lights of San Antonio and the Interstate 35 www.batcon.org/savebracken Andrew B. Walker Executive Director P.O. Box 162603, Austin, Texas 78716 BATS (512) 327-9721 fax: (512) 327-9724 Volume 31, No. 2, s u m m E r 2 0 1 3 P uBlicAtions s tA f f Director of Publications: Robert Locke Photo Editor: Meera Banta FEATURES Graphic Artist: Jason Huerta Copyeditors: Angela England, Valerie Locke BATS welcomes queries from writers. Send your article proposal The Memo from our with a brief outline and a description of any photos to: Executive Director [email protected]. Members: Please send changes of address and all cor res pondence to the address above or via email to 2 The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend [email protected] . Please include your label, if possible, and A new hope in the battle against WNS? allow six weeks for the change of address. by Chris Cornelison Founder: Dr. Merlin D. Tuttle E x E c u t i v E D i r E c to r : Andrew B. Walker Protecting Endangered Species B oA r D o f D i r E c to r s : Walter C. Sedgwick, Chair by Katie Gillies Dr. Cullen Geiselman, Vice Chair Anne-Louise Band, Secretary 6 Grassroots Help for Russia’s Sandy Read, Treasurer Danielle Gustafson; Dr. John Hayes; C. Andrew Marcus; Forgotten Bats Bettina Mathis; Dr. Gary F. McCracken; John D. Citizen science and education push conservation Mitchell; Steven P. Quarles; Wes Sechrest; Susan Wallace; Joe Walston; Joseph Zillo. by Igor Prokofev Honorary Directors : Sharon R. Forsyth; Elizabeth Ames Jones; Travis Mathis; Wilhelmina Robertson; William 9 Flying Foxes Rebuild Madagascar’s Scanlan, Jr. Tattered Forests s c i E n c E A Dv i s o ry c o m m i t t E E : Dr. Gary McCracken (Board Liaison), Dr. Kate Jones, Do seeds do better when they pass through bats? Dr. Thomas H. Kunz, Dr. Tigga Kingston, Dr. Rodrigo by Ryszard Oleksy Medellín, Dr. Paul Racey, Dr. Charles Rupprecht. BCI Science Panel Dr. Leslie S. Hall, Dr. Greg Richards, Australia; Dr. Jiri 14 An Unusual Home for Mother Bats Gaisler, Czech Republic; Dr. Arnulfo Moreno-Valdez, Remodeling a tourist site for bats, educators and scientists Mexico; Dr. Herman Limpens, Netherlands; Dr. Armando Rodriguez-Duran, Puerto Rico; Dr. Shahroukh Mistry, by Steven Thomas United States; Dr. José R. Ochoa, Venezuela. Membership Manager: Amy McCartney BATS (ISSN 1049-0043) is published quarterly by Bat NEWS & NOTES Con ser vation International, Inc., a nonprofit corporation supported by tax-deductible contributions used for public ed- ucation, research and conservation of bats and the ecosystems 18 A new chance for the Philippine bare-backed fruit bat that depend on them. An amazing African bat © Bat Conser vation International, 2013. All rights reserved. Bat Conservation International’s mission is to conserve the Teens for bats world’s bats and their ecosystems to ensure a healthy planet. BCI Member Snapshot A subscription to BATS is included with BCI membership: Senior, Student or Educator $30; Basic $35; Friends of BCI The Wish List $45; Supporting $60; Contributing $100; Patron $250; Sus- taining $500; Leader Circle $1,000. Third-class postage paid at Austin, Texas. Send address changes to Bat Conser vation In- ternational, P.O. Box 162603, Austin, TX 78716. COVER PHOTO: The pied bat of central and west Africa is one of the world’s most unusual-looking bats. It’s also one of the least studied and most rarely seen. But two teams of scientists encountered this little bat this year. See page 19. Facebook.com/batcon Twitter.com/BatConIntl PHOTO COuRTEsy Of BuCknEll unIVERsITy/dEEAnn REEdER TTHEHE EENEMYNEMY OF OF MY MY EENEMYNEMY ISIS MY MY FFRIENDRIEND AA newnew hopehope inin thethe battlebattle againstagainst WNS?WNS? courtesy of Kyle Gabriel Graduate student Chris Cornelison, a microbiologist at Georgia State by Chris Cornelison University, works in the lab during his search for biological agents that might combat White-nose Syndrome. or the past six years, the “silver bullet” sought by related to G. destructans. So we obtained samples of the G. de- scientists battling White-nose Syndrome has structans fungus from Kevin Keel (then at the University of been an ecologically acceptable tool for destroy- Georgia and now at the University of California, Davis) to ex- ing For disabling the fungus, which causes plore our bacterium’s anti- abilities. Geomyces destructans Geomyces this scourge that is killing millions of bats. But the search has The initial test results were astonishing. been frustrating. While some chemical fungicides will kill the The cold-loving fungus attacks by sending out branching fungus, their use would likely devastate complex cave ecosys- structures called hyphae that invade the bats’ tissue, especially tems and could contaminate water supplies. the wings. G. destructans grows best at about 41 to 50 degrees Several teams, including ours, are exploring another, poten- Fahrenheit (5º to 10º Celsius) and essentially stops growing, be- tially more benign, option: biological agents. Now initial results coming dormant, at 68º F (20º C). We demonstrated that R. from our research at Georgia State University suggest we have rhodochrous bacteria completely blocked germination of G. de- found a very promising candidate: a natural bacterium that in structans spores at 59º F (15º C) and strongly inhibited growth the lab is able to inhibit the fungus without actually touching and reproduction at 39º F (5º C). the bats or the cave. More research is required to confirm this This was the first demonstration of biological antagonism approach, but the evidence suggests we may be able to save bats to G. destructans, and we were eager to explore this potentially and spare the caves. revolutionary tool for combating WNS. I nearly gave up, how- My microbiology colleagues and I decided to tackle this ever, when I was unable to secure funding for the project, part problem after the national WNS Response Plan, published in of my work toward a Ph.D. Luckily, I applied for and received May 2011, gave significant attention to developing biological a grant from Bat Conservation International’s WNS Program. and chemical control options. We soon noticed some intriguing So I initiated an experiment with Kevin Keel to determine activities exhibited by the bacterium Rhodococcus rhodochrous whether Rhodococcus can prevent the WNS fungus from colo- strain DAP 96253. nizing bat tissue.