Nebraskaland

NEBRASKAland August/September 2016

NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.

Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/708333

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54 NEBRASKAland • AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2016 Story and photos by Eric Fowler I f you're like most people, you assume the winged creatures flitting through the sky at dusk from spring through fall are birds. Some are, mostly swallows. But if you take a closer look, you'll notice some have a different shape and wingbeat than birds. If you could get a really close look, you'd see they have hair, not feathers. And you might get a slight case of the creeps when you realize they are not birds, but bats. More numerous and better known in parts of the country where there are more caves and mines, bats are common throughout Nebraska, with 11 species either living here year-round or migrating through the state, and two other species with few records that were likely wayward travelers. The most common, big brown bats, which are actually quite small at a half to three-fourths of an ounce, are found statewide. They are often the ones you see darting through the evening sky, especially in older neighborhoods, where you may have them roosting in your attic or even find one in your house. Others are commonly seen above rivers, streams and ponds, or in woodlands. Bats provide a valuable service: an individual can eat hundreds of insects in a single night, providing billions of dollars of benefits to agriculture by controlling crop pests and reducing the number of mosquitoes we swat on a summer evening. But all is not well with bats. White- nose syndrome, which is caused by a non-native fungus, has been decimating populations of hibernating, cave- roosting bats in the eastern United States since it was first discovered in 2006. It was first detected in Nebraska in 2015. The disease has led to federal protection of the northern long-eared bat, which is fairly common both in eastern Nebraska and in the eastern United States and was listed as threatened in 2015. It has pushed the Indiana bat, an eastern species which has been listed as endangered since 1967, to the edge of extinction. The growth of wind energy is also a threat. The massive rotating blades of the turbines strike and kill flying bats, with losses the greatest in areas where populations are high and when bats are migrating. Yet compared to other mammals, and even birds, little is known about bats. It is difficult to study such a small mammal which mostly roosts in dark, hard-to-reach places, and is active only when flying at night. The recent threats to populations and advances in technology, however, have helped boost bat-related research throughout the country. This is adding greatly to the knowledge base as researchers try to firm-up a baseline from which they can see what effect, if any, these threats will have on bats, and how that may affect the natural world around us. Nebraska's Threats ranging from disease to wind turbines are driving research that is allowing researchers to learn more about this unique mammal.

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