{"id":11026,"date":"2010-10-16T11:19:10","date_gmt":"2010-10-16T18:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetsave.com\/?p=11026"},"modified":"2010-10-16T11:19:10","modified_gmt":"2010-10-16T18:19:10","slug":"bat-die-off-could-seriously-threaten-u-s-agriculture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/articles\/bat-die-off-could-seriously-threaten-u-s-agriculture\/","title":{"rendered":"Bat Die-Off Could Seriously Threaten U.S. Agriculture"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"flying<\/a><\/p>\n

If you haven’t heard, there have been massive die-offs of bats across the U.S. recently. Scientists have been warning us about the main cause, White-Nose Syndrome (WNS), for years… but who listens to scientists?<\/p>\n

With WNS, a fungus leaves a white substance all over bats disrupting hibernation patterns, forcing bats to use up all of their fat reserves and leading to starvation. Doesn’t sound pleasant.<\/p>\n

When WNS goes through bat communities, it is causing about 80-100% mortality.<\/p>\n

“The disease is absolutely devastating, it’s unprecedented,” says biologist Mylea Bayless from Bat Conservation International<\/strong><\/a>. “It’s causing population declines in wildlife that we haven’t seen since the passenger pigeon.”<\/p>\n

How Can a Bat Die-Off Hurt You?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bats are a key natural pest control for our country’s crops. The annual value of local bats<\/a> in a handful of counties in Texas was found to be $740,000 in 2006 because of their pest control services. That equaled about 29% of the local cotton crop.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Like honey bees<\/strong><\/a> (also suffering a massive die-off), bats are also important for pollination and spreading of seeds.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

In Arizon, bats are the main pollinators of three large cactus species that are critical to the region’s ecosystem.<\/p>\n

These bats are maybe highly invisible to people and even scary to many, but they are also critical to the ecosystems we live in and live off of.<\/p>\n

For more on this story, I got this info from an excellent piece by Bruce Kennedy of Daily Finance, “An ‘Unprecedented’ Bat Die-Off Could Devastate U.S. Agriculture<\/strong><\/a>.” There is more on the topic over there.<\/p>\n

I have to say, with our long history of devaluing the ecosystems and species we rely on to live and to live comfortably, it is great to see a piece like this getting publish on a major financial site like this.<\/p>\n

Photo Credit: bat, by flickr user tarotastic<\/a> under a CC license<\/p>\n

Related Stories:
\n1)\u00a0Military Base Working to Save Two Rare Bat Species <\/a><\/strong>
\n2)\u00a0I hate people. A Protected Colony of Rare Fruit Bats Gunned Down for Kicks<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you haven’t heard, there have been massive die-offs of bats across the U.S. recently. Scientists have been warning us about the main cause, White-Nose Syndrome (WNS), for years… but who listens to scientists? With WNS, a fungus leaves a white substance all over bats disrupting hibernation patterns, forcing bats to use up all of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,17,20],"tags":[1457,3860,3871,36037,36721,38117,38449],"spectra_custom_meta":{"dsq_thread_id":["306287772"],"_oembed_aa20535cb8511d381766a04c2f7b642f":["