Wildlife
Long-eared bat listing gets pushback
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A fight over logging restrictions is delaying federal protection of the northern long-eared bat, a Great Lakes species already decimated in the American Northeast.
Wildlife
Bats play crucial role in Michigan’s ecology
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Current State speaks with the executive director of the Organization for Bat Conservation, Rob Mies.
Wildlife
Mr. Great Lakes: Birds in Tawas, white-nosed bats and Earth Day
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Mr. Great Lakes (Jeff Kart) reports from Bay City, Michigan’s Delta College Q-90.1 FM. White-Nose Syndrome in Michigan, Birds in Tawas, and Earth Day in Bay City | Mr Great Lakes by Great Lakes Echo
This week, Kart discusses the white-nose syndrome recently found in Michigan bats, the Tawas Point Birding Festival and Bay City’s plans for Earth Day. Text at Mr. Great Lakes
Wildlife
Michigan bats found with white-nose fungus
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A fungus that has already killed more than 10 million bats nationwide has been found for the first time in Michigan. White-nose syndrome was confirmed April 10 in little brown bats in Alpena, Dickinson and Mackinac counties. It is expected to spread quickly through the state, said Bill Scullon, wildlife biologist and statewide bat coordinator for the Department of Natural Resources. The bats were found during a routine winter inspection done by researchers contracted by the department. Michigan farmers, foresters and homeowners count on bats as the primary predators of nighttime insects.
Wildlife
Mr. Great Lakes: Bats, environmental art and a field guide to Saginaw Bay
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Mr. Great Lakes (Jeff Kart) reports from Bay City, Michigan’s Delta College Q-90.1 FM.
Nov. 15, 2013 – The Environment Report – Delta Q 90.1 FM – Jeff Kart – Mr. Great Lakes by jeffkart
This week, Kart discusses two new bat species, an art contest through NOAA and the new Saginaw Basin Field Guide. Text at Mr. Great Lakes
Wildlife
Dead bats at wind farms perplex researchers, developers
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Wind turbines popping up around the Great Lakes are getting a reputation among webbed-winged night prowlers as large, spinning murderers.
Wildlife
Bat-killing disease approaching Michigan could affect agriculture and ash borers
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Michigan’s bats are under attack — not from tennis racquet-swinging bat swatters or vampire-hunters but principally from a deadly fungus with the potential to disrupt the ecosystem.
Nationwide, white-nose syndrome has wiped out an estimated 1 million bats since it was initially seen in a New York cave in 2006. Since then, it’s been identified in 14 states and two Canadian provinces and is moving westward.
Wildlife
White-nose Syndrome still a threat to Great Lakes bats
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Biologists discovered the disease in New York in 2006, and it has since spread into Pennsylvania, Ontario and 14 other states and provinces.
Wildlife
Fungus that kills bats likely on way to Michigan
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(MI) Detroit Free Press – White-nose syndrome, thought to be caused by a fungus previously unknown in the United States, settles on the noses and wings of hibernating bats. It has destroyed as many as 97% of the bats in some caves in the Northeast. The telltale white fungus was first noted on dead bats in New York in 2006 and has claimed more than 1 million bats in nine states since then, scientists say. More
Wildlife
Scientists hope to curb exploding bat lungs near Great Lakes wind turbines
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By Jeff Gillies, jeffgillies@gmail.com
Great Lakes Echo
July 9, 2009
Wind turbines cut air pollution, but they may mean respiratory trouble for bats flying nearby. “Basically, their lungs explode,” said Barb Barton, biologist with the Michigan Natural Features Inventory. Though wind turbines can kill bats by smacking them out of the sky, the huge spinning blades more often take out bats without touching them. Turbine blades spinning at up to 200 mph leave in their wake a vortex of low pressure, Barton said. Bats get caught in the vortex, and the change in pressure ruptures capillaries in the bats’ lungs.