Researchers seek to protect the southernmost bats in the world

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Looking for individuals by telemetry from the summit of a hill in Tierra del Fuego. Photo: The TrackersLooking for individuals by telemetry from the summit of a hill in Tierra del Fuego. Photo: The Trackers
 
 
By Gonzalo Ossa
 
An unprecedented event in the winter of 2007 left the scientific community in shock. In the state of New York, thousands of bats were found dead in four caves, and its believed that numerous others had perished outside their shelters. This hypothesis coincided with an increase by a factor of ten in the number of dead specimens from the genus Myotis.
 
After initial uncertainty, today it is known that the cause of that massive die-off was the fungus  Pseudogymnoascus destructans, or Pd.  Originally from Eurasia, it likely arrived to North America by human action and over the past decade this fungus has spread across the United States and seven provinces of Canada eliminating more than seven million bats. What’s worse, it continues to advance and appears unstoppable.
 
Myotis chiloensisMyotis chiloensis
 
 
Pd attacks the tissues while bats hibernate, causing discomfort in the patagium (the skin membrane that forms the surface of the wing) and snout, thus generating the characteristic white spots that gave rise to the name of the disease In English: white-nose syndrome (also known as W.N.S.). The disease causes bats to wake from their hibernation state, and thus spending their energy reserves which leads them to eventually die in flight or inside their shelters.
 
In 2016, we began a project that will allow us to know in stages whether the fungus is present in Chilean Patagonia and what to do to fight it or control its arrival. Currently, the research is being carried out in parts of Karukinka Park, on the Chilean side of Tierra del Fuego island, where we have captured individuals of Myotis chiloensis and Histiotus magellanicus, both non-migratory species and, therefore, they are hibernating there. The first results confirm that the bat populations in this part of Patagonia are free of the feared W.N.S., but at the same time we also conclude that they are susceptible to becoming contaminated.
 
 
Taking patagium smear samples with a sterile swab for laboratory analysis. Photo: The TrackersTaking patagium smear samples with a sterile swab for laboratory analysis. Photo: The Trackers
 
 
That is why in 2017 we began monitoring environmental conditions in ten abandoned caves and mines throughout the rest of Chile to determine whether they are at risk of contamination by the fungus. The results of the project are expected to provide the basis for an action plan to prevent the arrival of W.N.S. to Chile.

For more info on the project, visit: https://www.rufford.org/projects/gonzalo_ossa_0