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Why Bats?
Bats are important to the maintenance of healthy ecosystems and are considered to be good bioindicators for monitoring ecosystem health because of their longevity and their sensitivity to changes in their environment that may also affect many other organisms.
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Additionally, bats provide many benefits and services to humans. Because bats are active mainly during the night (nocturnal) many of their important benefits and services occur “under the radar.”
Insect Consumption
One of the most important services that bats provide is insect consumption.
Approximately 70 percent of all bat species either depend exclusively or primarily on insects for food, and these bats consume large numbers of insects throughout the growing season.
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For example, colonies of Mexican free-tailed bats in Texas often contain over 1 million bats; the economic importance of their foraging has been estimated to save cotton farmers approximately $12.2 million a year in insect pest suppression.
Other studies estimate that bats across the United States and other parts of the word save farmers billions of dollars each year by patrolling the dark skies and literally gobbling up tons of flying crop pests each night.
Some species of bats are also important pollinators of native and commercial plants.
Empower
Growth
Over 500 different types of tropical plants are pollinated by bats every year. For example, nectar feeding bats pollinate Agave tequilana, which is the principal component used in the distillation of tequila, an economically important product of Mexico.
These bats forage by plunging their faces down into a flower and using their very long tongues to lap up nectar stored there. While they are doing this, pollen becomes attached to their fur. Then when they visit other flowers, some of this pollen comes off, thereby fertilizing the flowers.​​​​​​
Pollination
Seed Dispersal
Fruit-eating bats in the tropics and subtropics are important seed dispersers and aid in regenerating forests and fruit crops.
When bats fly across nighttime landscapes, their combined abilities of digesting quickly and defecating ‘on-the-fly’ play an important role in regenerating clear-cut forests, especially rainforests.
Bats also redistribute nutrients across the landscape. Bat guano is exceptionally high in nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium. Guano accumulations around the bases of bat roosts in dead trees fertilize the soil and may also aid in forest regeneration.
Medical Research and Technology
Bats provide many other benefits to humans, some of which are just becoming known. They have served as important models in medical research, and compounds from their bodies are being used in new medical treatments. The transparent and extremely thin structure of bat wings have led to improved understanding of the dynamics of blood circulation in mammals.
Ecotourism
Nightly bat emergences during summertime from daytime roosts in caves, tunnels, mines, or bridges provide impressive viewing opportunities as tens of thousands to millions of bats leave their roosts to forage for insects. Their collective flight can draw thousands of spectators, create interpretive opportunities, and provide economic benefits to nearby communities. ​
Threats to Bats
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THE PROBLEM
North American bats are currently facing a range of significant threats that have led to alarming declines in various species. Key issues include diseases such as white-nose syndrome, collisions with wind turbines, and habitat loss and degradation. Understanding species distributions and abundance, as well as how these metrics change over time, is critical to assessing the viability of bat populations and identifying when populations are recovering.
THE SOLUTION
The North American Bat Program effectively addresses the historical lack of information regarding bat species status and trends through coordinated, standardized, long-term data collection. The data collected as part of NAB will contribute to spatially explicit estimates of bat distributions and abundance, as well as track changes over time. information is vital for filling knowledge gaps and supports proactive management of bat populations.
Habitat Loss & Degradation
Forests and underground structures like caves and mines are critical bat habitat for roosting, foraging, and reproduction. The growing loss of these habitats, continues to cause substantial impacts on the abundance and diversity of bats at a global scale.
White-nose Syndrome
White-nose syndrome (WNS) is a disease caused by an invasive, cold-growing fungus that affects hibernating bats. The fungus grows on bats’ skin, disturbing hibernation and resulting in dehydration, starvation, and often death. First documented in New York in 2006, WNS has since spread to numerous U.S. states and Canadian provinces, causing severe population declines in many bat species. Click on the button below to learn more or explore the WNS publications database.
Wind Energy
Current evidence suggest that collisions with spinning wind turbine blades may kill hundreds of thousands of bats each year in North America.
Read more about bats and wind energy in our dedicated storymap!