This month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service awarded $32,719 to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for work to monitor and manage white-nose syndrome (WNS), a deadly disease that has decimated bat populations in other states. Bat Conservation International, a nonprofit based in Austin, will do much of the work using the grant funds.
First discovered in New York in winter 2006, WNS has since spread to 29 states and five Canadian provinces, though it has not been detected in Texas so far. The USFWS is leading a cooperative effort with federal and state agencies, tribes, universities and others to investigate and manage WNS.
Texas is home to 32 species of bats, including 18 species that roost or hibernate in groups in caves. The state’s high bat diversity and its overlap of eastern and western bat species within its borders could accelerate the spread of WNS into the west. The Mexican free-tailed bat, a well-known species in parts of Texas, including the Austin-San Antonio areas, is not considered at high risk because it migrates and does not hibernate in winter in Texas.
At least three species known to be vulnerable to WNS are found in Texas, although biologists are concerned about other related species. The three are big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus), southeastern myotis (Myotis austroriparius), and tri-colored bat (Perimyotis subflavus). While population estimates for cave roosting bats are not available for most of Texas, 2012 cave surveys in the Panhandle region documented about 8,500 cave myotis in only six caves.
The Texas grant will fund winter surveys at priority roost sites in the Panhandle, continuing similar efforts that have been ongoing for several years. Specifically, the grant will make possible surveys at 14 high-priority hibernacula (bat caves) to assess bat species composition and abundance, testing for signs of WNS. If WNS is discovered, the grant will also fund work with disease treatment experts, cave ecologists and other stakeholders to weigh the pros and cons of different treatment options and develop treatment plans.
The grant for Texas was part of $1 million awarded to 34 states and the District of Columbia, in the seventh year the USFWS has given grants to states for WNS response. Funding is provided through the federal wildlife agency’s Endangered Species Recovery and Science Applications programs.
Additional information about the national WNS effort is available at www.whitenosesyndrome.org. Questions and answers about WNS in Texas are on the TPWD white-nose syndrome web page.
