Bats and White Nose Syndrome

Bats are a misunderstood and unreasonably feared critter. Some species rid our skies of pest insects, while others pollinate crops and other plants. Bat poop (guano) is a rich fertilizer. Attitudes are changing as people begin to appreciate the ecosystem services bats provide but now they face another threat, White Nose Syndrome.

White Nose Syndrome (WNS) is a fungal infection that is destroying bat colonies at an unprecedented rate. The fungus Pseudogymnoscus destructans was likely introduced from Europe inadvertently. It thrives in the cold strikes bats when they are hibernating. Bats hibernate to conserve energy when their food source (insects or fruit) is unavailable, but the infection causes them to wake from hibernation. Being awake increases metabolism and other bodily functions, and the bats starve to death because of burning through whatever energy they had stored to make it through the winter. To answer your next question, “How does being awake kill a bat?”, most of the calories you need in a day are just to keep you alive- breathing, circulation, and the biggest energy consumer- temperature regulation.

WNS spreads from direct contact with an infected bat or from surface contamination inside a bat cave. People can transport the fungus from cave to cave, so spelunkers must decontaminate clothing, shoes, and equipment in between caves. 

Bats infected with WNS (National Park Service photo)

WNS has killed millions of bats in the eastern parts of the US and Canada is spreading west. Last year the first case was discovered here in Washington. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife conducted a bat count a few weeks ago at Northwest Trek as the beginning of an effort to monitor bat colonies and WNS. A follow-up count took place this past weekend and I took part.

The goal is to count the number of bats seen leaving and entering the nest. Exits minus entries is the total number of bats seen. The tricky part is seeing them as it gets darker. I did OK with this until about 9:20. The freaky part is not seeing the bats until they are inches from your face, then they turn away at the last second, mostly to my left. I could their wings flapping as they passed by my head.

By establishing a baseline this year the state hopes to track population trends that could indicate colonies in trouble. This can be tricky, though. Bats sometimes tend to not roost in the same location night after night. For example, the site I counted was unmonitored in the previous count. The only reason I was posted there was because on the way into Northwest Trek we heard the bats making sounds inside the park entryway. My total for the night was around 60 bats. Other sites inside the park had a lower count than during the previous survey. It is possible that my site had an increase since the last survey, but that is unknown since no one counted there the first time. 

Me counting bats

In just six years since its introduction, WNS had killed millions of bats with a mortality rate up to 100% in some colonies, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Fighting back will be a long process, but the key first step is monitoring. I am glad I had a chance to take part in the beginning of what I hope will be a successful fight. WNS info this week comes from the National Park Service, one of many partners in the search for a cure.

NPS: https://www.nps.gov/articles/what-is-white-nose-syndrome.htm

USFWS: http://www.batcon.org/pdfs/USFWS_WNS_Mortality_2012_NR_FINAL.pdf

The Devil's Weed

Richard Nixon had an enemies list, and so do I. Unlike Tricky Dick, my enemies are not political foes but plants. Specifically, the invasive Scotch broom and Himalayan blackberry. Both take advantage of disturbances and are persistent. My worst nightmare came true when I found a Scotch broom growing intertwined with a blackberry. I just know they were plotting against me!

Let’s start with Scotch broom. Native to Europe, this shrub with the ugly yellow flower came to America to fight soil erosion and brighten up roadsides. Once it took root, it took over. I’ve seen fields of it. Even a forest of old growth Scotch broom, trees 15 feet tall crowding out the native vegetation. It takes over grasslands and forest, causing habitat loss for the many critters who call grasslands and forests home. If eaten, it can be toxic.

Old growth Scotch broom- not too impressive but it's winter in this picture

Great, it puts nitrogen in the soil (it’s actually a member of the pea family), but what good is nitrogenated soil if no one else gets to use it? Seeds can remain viable in the soil for 80 years, maybe longer. Fire doesn’t destroy them; in fact, they may even benefit from fire since this weed loves a disturbed area. Constant pulling is the best way to control this fiend. Just don’t pull a muscle in your back like I did.

Scotch broom monoculture (from Bingham County, ID)

Himalayan blackberries may be even worse than Scotch broom. Blackberries can fight back. The canes are covered in thorns that make cutting them a chore that involves getting yourself cut in the process. The canes grow up, droop down, and sprout a whole new bush when they reach the ground. Each bush gives off thousands of berries, each with dozens of seeds. Birds, bears, raccoons, and who knows what else eat the berries and poop put the seeds, spreading more evil bushes far and wide.

The Himalayan blackberry is a failed experiment by food biologist Luther Burbank. Using selective breeding, he created varieties of fruits and vegetables that we still eat today. The Himalayan blackberry (which originated in Armenia) was supposed to be a thornless variety. Instead, it turned out to be perfectly adapted to life in the Northwest. It can grow just about anywhere and will cover anything in its path. The one pictured below (next to a tree) is at least 15 feet tall. I added a second picture with the entire tree visible, for perspective.

Himalayan blackberry under this Douglas fir

Left Douglas fir is the one seen above

When you are working on restoring a site to its natural condition, there will more than likely be at least one invasive plant. But it gets so frustrating when you have to clear the same plants year after year, especially when you know you got rid of them all the year before. Diligence and persistence are probably the two most important tools in any restoration ecologist’s kit.

Himalayan blackberry is just now beginning to bear fruit

Scotch broom greets me at my land trust property

Here's the variety with red on the flowers

Luther Burbank info came from this fascinating NPR article. The monoculture picture is from Bingham County, Idaho's noxious weed program.

Keep Bugging Me

Plants are important to life on Earth. They put oxygen in the atmosphere as a byproduct of photosynthesis. Everyone has to eat, and plants for the base of the food chain. Just as important, and either overlooked or swatted aside, are insects. I consider insects to be the second lowest man on the food chain totem pole as they are super abundant and are the prey of choice for many of the first order predators. In addition, many of them support plant life by serving as pollinators. Others are beneficial because they eat other insects that are crop pests. 

Hoverfly working hard to pollinate

Fritillary butterfly pollinating

I never saw this little pollinator before today

Insect larvae, such as fly maggots or aquatic larva such as mayfly and caddisfly larva, play an important role in the nutrient cycle, breaking down dead plant and animal matter and cycling it into the soil for plants or cycle it even higher in the food chain by being eaten by something bigger than a plant.

Aquatic insect larvae are important indicators of ecosystem health. The absence or presence of certain bugs in the water can tell researchers a lot about water quality. Data collected from stream bug surveys can be used in habitat restoration and conservation projects. 

Caddisfly larvae, an important salmon food

Water strider- fish food

Insects are a great teaching tool. When my daughter was little, insects were her introduction to nature. They are lightweight, portable, easy to catch, and almost everywhere so there was always an opportunity to teach her something new. 

A ladybug, one of my daughter's favorites when she was little

Many of the birds we enjoy seeing or hearing eat insects. Salmon are commercially important fish species that depend on insects and/or insect larva in their early stages of life. The flowers in your garden, not to mention many crops, are there because of insects. Next time you eat an apple, smell a rose, or hear your favorite bird hug a bug! 

Unknown tiny insect that landed on my shirt one day

Bee on its 10 minute break

Praying mantis or preying mantis?

Fired Up For Summer

Summer is full of fun in the sun, cookouts, trips to the beach, bugs, and in the West, fire. Every year thousands of acres, mostly in the West, burn. Some are caused by lightning strikes and others are caused by human carelessness or even intentionally set. Lives are lost and property is destroyed. But fire is nature’s way of renewing itself. Within days of a fire (assuming it wasn’t a wildfire that sterilized the soil) new plants colonize the area, followed by the animals.

Fireweed, one of the first plants to colonize an area after a disturbance

Certain evergreen trees need fire to reproduce, the seed cones unable to open without the extreme heat. In other areas, such as meadows and prairies, fire destroys competing plants that would otherwise change the characteristics of the ecosystem. Many birds are dependent on shrubs and trees that require a more open area than dense forest, and without fire keeping those areas open the plants and birds would become homeless. 

Aftermath of a fire at Crater Lake National Park

Why are today’s fires so devastating? To answer that question, we need to use the Wayback Machine and visit the birth of forest management in the 1800s. Forests were being managed for timber production, and fire was seen as the enemy. Since fire was a threat to destroy the product, it had to be suppressed. Fire suppression was so good, that by the time we figured out that a burn every now and then was a good thing, there was such a tremendous buildup of fuel that any small fire could potentially become a highly destructive canopy fire. 

Okanogan wildfire (Washington Department of Natural Resources)

Many trees, like the ponderosa pine, have a thick fire-resistant bark that enables them to survive the healthy kind of slow-moving ground fire that clears out the underbrush and opens up seed cones. With excessive fuel laying around, the fire can reach the canopy of the trees and rapidly destroy anything in its path. 

Ponderosa pine, which has fire-resistant bark and fire-dependent seeds

Prairie fires were human-caused maintenance fires before white settlers arrived and replaced prairies with farms and towns. In the Great Plains, natives set fires to burn the grass to allow for fresh growth that would attract the bison that were so vital to their existence. In the Northwest, prairie fires kept the forest from invading the open areas were camas flowers grow. Camas bulbs were an important part of some tribes’ diets. 

2015 Alder Lake fire near Eatonville, WA

2015 Alder Lake fire near Eatonville, WA

While most of the big fires making headlines are in the West, Florida and Georgia have had a few in recent years. A potentially explosive situation in the making is the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, where an uncontrolled wildfire could put thousands of lives at risk.

Some information on fires is from US Fish and Wildlife Service. A map of current fires is available from the National Interagency Fire Center. 

Species of the Month

Celebrate America with July’s Species of the Month. An American icon, the bald eagle is synonymous with freedom and power. Looking at them through a naturalist's eyes, they are also a symbol graceful elegance, keen vision, and superb scavenging skills.

Eagle in flight over Puget Sound

Scientific name: Haliaeetus leucocephalus

Kingdom: Animalia (animals)

Class: Aves (birds)

Order: Falconiformae (daytime birds of prey)

Range: Subarctic North America south to Mexico

Habitat: Large trees typically near water (freshwater or saltwater)

Lifespan: 15-19 years

Diet: fish (freshwater or saltwater), water birds (murres, herons, geese, etc), squirrels, voles, otter pups, rats, carrion, human garbage          

Predators: Adults not subject to predation; eggs and young are preyed upon by bears, raccoons, wolverines, bobcats, foxes, gulls, and corvids

Conservation Status: Species of least concern

Bath time (Photo by Ken Sutliff)

The intense gaze (Photo by Ken Sutliff)

Other Information: The bald eagle has been the US national symbol since 1782, despite objections from Ben Franklin. Listed as endangered in 1978, populations have rebounded dramatically and it was delisted in 2007, an Endangered Species Act success story. Some eagles are migratory, others are year-round residents, depending on location. In addition to hunting and scavenging, some will steal food from other species, particularly osprey. Bald eagles have a long lifespan. Eggs have a low success rate but one-year mortality rates are low. They mate for life but may take a new mate after one dies. Mating rituals include death-defying aerobatics. Bald eagles go through several color morphs before maturing into baldness at age five. Immature bald eagles are frequently confused with golden eagles. Bald eagles are extremely shy and will avoid humans as much as possible. I have a hard time sneaking up on them to get close enough for a good picture.

A whole pile of bald eagles over Mashel River in Eatonville, WA

This week’s information comes from University of Michigan’s Animal Diversity Web: http://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Haliaeetus_leucocephalus/ and special thanks to Ken Sutliff for the bald eagle photos.