Consequently, not only is the potential of human-bat contact increasing, but the occurrence of bats encountering human-made structures and dangers is significantly higher with devastating consequences for bats. Threats to bats Roads The construction of roads has the potential to negatively impact bat populations, through loss of roosts, foraging habitats and by severing landscape elements used as commuting routes by bats. That leads to bad things happening to these important predators of the night. Certainly, if bats were even remotely as dangerous as has been hypothesized in recent zoonosis literature, major disease outbreaks should have been documented long ago among the millions of people in Asia, Africa, and the Pacific and Indian Ocean Islands who have hunted, sold, or eaten a wide variety of bats throughout human history (Bergmans and Rozendaal 1988; Mickleburgh et al. Threats to Bats. This fungal disease is wiping out bat populations. Here are some specific threats: White nose syndrome – This is a foreign disease introduced accidentally into bat hibernation caves in the […] Habitat loss, climate change, roost destruction, disease, deforestation, bushmeat trade, guano mining, disturbance and persecution, and increasing numbers of wind farms are all causes of bats declining globally. 2011). Bats, like so many other species, face wide-ranging threats around the world: foremost is habitat degradation and loss from a variety of human activities. White-nose Syndrome . 2010). Threats to Bats. The following are threats to bats and ways people can help limit these risks. Reactionary efforts against bats will exacerbate other threats to viability of bat populations that we know can decline very rapidly. The devastating disease called white-nose syndrome, windmill turbines, habitat loss, and climate change have caused large numbers of bats to die.
Eastern North American bat populations are experiencing precipitous declines as a result of White-nose Syndrome (WNS), a highly infectious disease caused by the fungus, Pseudogymnoascus destructans. Bats are threatened by many things, but probably most of all by the lack of knowledge and misinformation about them. White-nose Syndrome. Bats in Danger. Within 10 years of the 2006 introduction of white-nose syndrome (WNS) to the eastern United States, we lost millions of bats, and populations of some species were reduced by over 90% (Frick et al. Other threats include indiscriminant killing based on superstitions or fears of disease; uncontrolled hunting of bats for food and folk medicine; wind turbine-caused mortality; and improper mining of bat guano for fertilizer. Across the U.S., bats face many different threats. Threats to bats Sadly, many bat species around the world are vulnerable or endangered due to factors ranging from loss and fragmentation of habitat, diminished food supply, destruction of roosts, disease and hunting or killing of bats. Zoom in View wing damage from White Nose Syndrome. Threats to bats Sadly, many bats are under severe threat from increasing human pressure.