In recent years, white nose syndrome has wiped out bat populations in the Maritimes. Until this summer, one of the last places with healthy populations was Cape Breton, but new research shows those bats are also in steep decline.
The first confirmed case of white nose syndrome in Nova Scotia was in 2011, since that time, millions of bats have been lost to the fungus.
“What happens is the fungus is introduced into these caves, it ends up growing on the muscle and wing tissue. It wakes them prematurely from their hibernation. That causes them to wake up, search for food and water at a time when it's limited, so they often die of starvation,” says project manager Jared Tomie.
Tomie and his team at ACAP Cape Breton are using scientific measures to monitor bats on the island. They've been using acoustic equipment that allows them to listen in to bat activity. Then, they compare their year to year findings.
“We've had three summers worth of monitoring. We noticed a small difference last year. This year we've noticed a ten times decrease in a few of our locations,” says Tomie.
The large drop in numbers began in 2006 in the United States, making its way up the eastern seaboard.
Newfoundland may be the last hope for refuge from the disease in Atlantic Canada.
Experts expect the fungus will spread toward the western provinces and, in Nova Scotia, white-nose syndrome has killed somewhere in the tens of thousands of bats so far.
“The little brown bat and northern long haired bat have been listed as species at risk, so in areas where the fungus has taken hold in caves and mines. There's over a 90 per cent decrease in their numbers,” says Tomie.
Bats have a very low reproductive rate, which means it will take a long time to recover from this deadly disease.
Tomie says treatment for white nose syndrome is in preliminary stages and may not be ready for many years to come.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Kyle Moore
