Family-Outdoors

  A biologist prepares to swab a tri-colored bat during annual surveillance efforts. (Jena Donnell/ODWC) Three tri-colored bats,  Perimyotis subflavus,  from a privately owned cave in eastern Oklahoma's Delaware County have tested positive for the fungus,  Pseudogymnoascus destructans,  that is associated with the disease known as white-nose syndrome. This disease has been confirmed in seven hibernating bat species across the eastern United States. With these new findings, Oklahoma becomes the third state where the fungus has been confirmed, but the disease is not present.    Bats are crucial to a healthy ecosystem. They play a key role in keeping insect populations including agricultural pests and mosquitos under control. In cave systems, they also provide nutrients for other cave life through their droppings.    "While disheartening, these results are not totally unexpected," said Melynda Hickman, ...

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife have confirmed that an endangered Indiana bat was found dead at the Blue Creek Wind Farm near Van Wert, Ohio. Blue Creek Wind Farm, LLC, a subsidiary of Iberdrola Renewables, LLC notified the Service and ODNR that a bat carcass was found at the facility and was preliminarily identified as an endangered Indiana bat. The bat carcass was located during post-construction monitoring that has occurred since April 2012 as part of the company’s evaluation of the facility's effects on birds and bats. The bat was confirmed by the Service to be a female Indiana bat. This mortality is the fifth known mortality of an Indiana bat at a wind facility, to date. Other mortalities of Indiana bats have been documented at wind energy facilities in Indiana, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.