Deadly bat fungus white nose syndrome appears for the first time in Alberta Globalnews.ca

A disease that is nearly wiping out bat populations in eastern Canada and the US has appeared in Alberta for the first time.

White nose syndrome, a fungus that kills bats by disrupting their winter hibernation, was identified in several locations in the province last year after being found in Saskatchewan in 2021.

“It looks like it’s spreading about 500 kilometers a year,” said Corey Olson of the Wildlife Conservation Society, which conducted the research.

Society researchers traced the infestation by collecting bat droppings from under 800 bridges, where the small mammals like to rest during the night.

“There are bats in a lot of bridges,” Olson said. “About half of the bridges we looked at contained bat guano.”

When analyzed, two samples from the southern part of the Red Deer River came back positive for the fungus. Other samples that showed possible infection came from along the Milk River in southern Alberta and as far north as the Battle River near Cold Lake.

White nose syndrome is caused by a fungus that affects the skin of infected bats. Olson compared it to athlete’s foot.

“It eats away at their skin and they have to come out of hibernation to fight off the infection – or it can become bothersome and they can’t hibernate when it does.”

Bats’ immune systems barely work when they’re asleep, which means they must be awake to fight off the fungus. But during hibernation, bats can go without food for up to six months. Coming out of it costs them the energy they need to make it through the winter.

“They starve to death before they can start eating again,” Olson said.

Because bats huddle together to avoid the cold, the disease tends to go away quickly. It is also fatal.

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98 percent of bats died in a cave in eastern Canada. In eastern North America, where the disease has been present for about 20 years, bat numbers have declined by about 90 percent.

Alberta has already declared two species of the province’s most common bat, the little brown bat, as endangered, out of concern for the eventual arrival of the disease.

“We are very likely to see a similar decline in Alberta,” Olson said. “It’s not a lot of bats that can survive this disease.”

White nose syndrome first appeared in North America in 2006 in New York State, probably through shipping. It has mostly been spread bat-to-bat, although humans may play a role.

Bats play an important role in their various ecosystems. They are major nocturnal predators of flying insects such as mosquitoes. During a night hunt a bat can eat its body weight in insects.

They also eat insects that harm human crops. Moths, for example, are major bat food. Moths grow from caterpillars, which are an important crop pest.

Olson said a US study concluded that bats provide pest control worth billions each year. He said the figures for Canada are likely to be in the “many millions” of dollars.

A small number of bats have shown a natural resistance to the fungus, which scientists are trying to understand. Also, researchers are experimenting with an antifungal agent that can be sprayed into bat caves.

Olson urges people to disturb the bats as little as possible.

He said, ‘Let them do their work. “Bats are in trouble.”

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