WHY CARE about BATS? James E. Eggers Director of Education Bat Conservation International [email protected] www.batcon.org WHY CARE about BATS? • Intrinsic Value • Cultural Value • Utilitarian Value.
Download ReportTranscript WHY CARE about BATS? James E. Eggers Director of Education Bat Conservation International [email protected] www.batcon.org WHY CARE about BATS? • Intrinsic Value • Cultural Value • Utilitarian Value.
WHY CARE about BATS? James E. Eggers Director of Education Bat Conservation International [email protected] www.batcon.org WHY CARE about BATS? • Intrinsic Value • Cultural Value • Utilitarian Value INTRINSIC VALUE Aesthetic: bats are unique products of millions of years of natural development Diversity of Bats Tadarida chapini Chapin’s freetailed Bat INTRINSIC VALUE Ethical: “humans have demonstrated the capability of forcing bats to extinction … we must do all we can to save bats.” (McCracken) CULTURAL VALUE Symbolic / Linguistic CULTURAL VALUES Ritual / Spiritual UTILITARIAN VALUE Ecological Economic to environment to humans (ecosystem services) Pest Insect Suppression Seed-dispersal Pollination Nutrient Redistribution Pest Insect Suppression Seed-dispersal Pollination Nutrient Redistribution Derived: Ecotourism Medicine Bats are important for keeping forest pests in check (source: USFS) Integrated Pest Management A sustainable approach to managing pests by combining biological, cultural, physical & chemical tools in a way that minimizes economic, health, and environmental risks. (source: USDA) 70% of Bat Species Worldwide Eat Insects. Nearly All US Species are insectivores and can eat up to 125% of their weight each night. pest suppression Annual US crop losses to pests: over one billion dollars Annual US pesticide use for agriculture: 1.23 billion pounds (source: NSF Center for Integrated Pest Management) How much are bats contributing to reducing crop loss and pesticide use? >$3.7 Billion every year (source: Boyles, et al, 1 APRIL 2011 VOL 332 SCIENCE www.sciencemag.org) Crops that benefit from bats • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Alfalfa Apple Asparagus Artichoke Avocado Barley Beans Beets Blackberry Broccoli Bermuda grass Cabbage Cantaloupe Cauliflower Celery Chickpeas Chinese cabbage Clover Collards Corn Cotton • • • • Cowpeas Cucumber Eggplant Flax • Grapes • • • • • • • • Grasses Hayfields Kale Lawns Lettuce Lentil Lima beans Millet • Mustard • • • • • • Oats Okra Onions Oranges Parsnip Pastureland • • • • • • • • Papaya Peaches Peanuts Pears Peas Pecans Pepper Plums • Potatoes • • • • • • • • • Pumpkin Radishes Raspberries Rhubarb Rice Rutabaga Rye Strawberries Tomatoes • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Safflower Snap bean Soybeans Sorghum Spinach Squash Sudan grass Sugar beets Sugarcane Sunflower Sweet Potato Timothy Tobacco Turnips Vetch Watercress Watermelon Wheat Corn & Cotton Without bats, • corn cost can increase 20-30% • cotton cost can increase 10-13% Corn worm (source: Texas Agriculture Extension Service Bracken Bat Cave, owned and protected by Bat Conservation International The millions of Mexican Free-tailed bats from Bracken Cave can eat every night as much as 200 tons of insects. That’s 130 Toyota Camrys! Pollinators for the economy 750+ plants have evolved with bat pollinators. • beneficial/critical to humans (medicines) • Local/national economies (durian) • Wild stocks for disease resistance (bananas) Pollinators • • • • keystone plants crucial to their ecosystems almost every night blooming plant almost every white flowered plant almost every plant with a smell repugnant to humans Seed-dispersal • • • • • eat fruits of pioneer plants carry fruit long distances drop seeds where they stop and pass seeds in their feces during flight More efficient than birds Economic Value: Derived Ecosystem Services – Fertilizer – Ecotourism – Detergents – Medicine Bracken Bat Cave, owned and protected by Bat Conservation International Bracken Bat Cave, owned and protected by Bat Conservation International Congress Avenue Bridge. Bat colony saved by Bat Conservation International Medicine • >100 medicinal plants depend on bats • Guano: source of anti-fungal medicines and organic cleaning agents • vampire bat saliva enzyme: source of potent blood-clot dissolvers for human stroke victims Why save bats? • Intrinsic Value • Cultural Value • Ecological Value • Economic Value Threats to Bat • Deliberate killings – including unregulated bush-meat hunting • • • • • Habitat destruction - including unregulated guano mining Climate change White-nose Syndrome Wind turbines Habitat Destruction Cave & gate mining workshops White-nose Syndrome Since 2007, > 5.7 million bats have died. 1st record in 2006, New York Now fungus is ½ way to Pacific -closer to Pacific than to point of origin in NY- WNS infected sites (2007-2010) 200 157 150 88 100 42 50 5 0 2007 2008 2009 2010 WNS impacts in North America • > 90% mortality • Spreading rapidly • All 6 northeastern cave bat species WNS affected. • 3 more spp. with fungus • 2 U.S. endangered species Courtesy: Jonathan Reichard “White-Nose Syndrome (WNS) is a devastating disease of hibernating bats that has caused the most precipitous decline of North American wildlife in recorded history.…… From the Consensus Statement of the Second WNS Emergency Science Strategy Meeting Why are bats vulnerable? Many are cave hibernators: • Clustering behavior promotes pathogen transmission • Limited energy resources during hibernation Bat are Slow to reproduce, which will limit population recovery. North American Response Coordination / Collaboration Federal Agencies/Sponsored DOI: USFWS, USGS, NPS, BLM USDA: USFS, APHIS DOD: ACOE, ARMY Smithsonian Institution, National Zoo National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis SE Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study Academia Boston Univ. Bucknell Univ. Columbia Univ. Cornell Univ. Eastern Michigan Univ. Fordham Univ. Indiana State Univ. Missouri State Univ. Northern Kentucky Univ. Tufts University UC Davis University Hospitals Case Medical Center U. of Guelph U. of Tennessee U. of Winnipeg Tribal Agencies ─ ─ St. Regis Mohawk Wampanoag * information courtesy Jeremy Coleman, USFWS State Agencies (47) ─ AK, AL, AR, AZ, CA, CT, DE, FL, GA, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV, WY Non-Government Organizations ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ Bat Conservation International National Speleological Society The Nature Conservancy Defenders of Wildlife Natural Resources Defense Council Center for Biological Diversity Disney Bat World Am. Museum of Natural History Association of Zoos & Aquariums Others too numerous to list signed testimonies…… International ─ ─ ─ ─ Canadian Provinces Canadian Coop. Wildlife Health Center European biologists IUCN Bats & Wind Energy N.A. Continent estimate of turbine caused bat fatalities 2010: > 250,000 2030: > 2 million Deterrent Field Testing ~18─62% fewer fatalities at treatment turbines Curtailment studies • Five years ago, according to industry ”it can’t be done!” • 0.3- ~1% annual power loss with cutin speed raised between 5.0-6.5 m/s Curtailment studies • 44 – 93% fewer bats killed • 3 more curtailment studies, 2 new ones in 2012. Visit www.batcon.org Contact me at [email protected] QUESTIONS ?