Bats play crucial roles in ecosystems as pollinators for over 500 plant species including important crops, as seed dispersers, and as pest controllers that eat thousands of insects per night. However, bat populations have been declining dramatically in recent years due to diseases like white nose syndrome, a deadly fungus that has wiped out many bat populations in North America, as well as threats from renewable energy infrastructure that has killed over 600,000 bats. Conservation efforts aim to better understand the causes of bat declines and find solutions to stop the spread of diseases in order to allow bat populations to recover.

1. Why are bats important?
If you like to drink tequila or eat chocolate, you must say thanks to
our dear pollinator friend, BAT!
Bats pollinate flowers of more than 500 plant species, which a lot of
them are extremely important crops including mango, banana,
cocoa, durian, guava and agave (used to make tequila). Like birds,
some tropical fruit bats help seed dispersal in such they carry seeds
inside them after digesting the fruit and excrete the seeds far from
the parent trees into a new environment. Due to the ability of
pollinating plants and dispersing seeds, bats can even assist in
regrowth of forests. Hence, they also act as Reforesters!
Nevertheless, bats are extremely important pest controllers. In the
UK, all bats are insectivores, which mean they fed on insects. They
eat up to thousands of insects every night. If you are worried that
bats will bite you or suck your blood like in Vampire movies, they
won’t! In fact, bats in the UK will help you get rid of those
bloodsucking mosquitoes!
What influences bats’ activities?
The two categories of factors that influence bats’ activities, Biotic
and Abiotic:
Biotic Factors Abiotic Factors
Vegetation cover
Quantity and Type of food
Predation pressure
Ambient Temperature
Light Intensity
Noise
Bats play a crucial
role in the
ecosystem as more
than 500 plant
species rely on
them to be
pollinated.
However, global
bat population has
been declining
dramatically these
few years due to
diseases and
anthropogenic
factors.
Roles of Bats in Ecosystem
 Pollinators
 Seed Dispersers
 Reforesters
 Pest Controllers
FormoreinformationonBats:
http://www.bats.org.uk/pages/about_bats.html
Bats prefer to stay in low light intensity areas such as caves. Temperature
can indirectly affect bat activity by reducing the quantity of insects, one of
bats’ main sources of food (A. Mukherjee, 2002).

2. Threats to Bats:
Deadly Fungus
The global bats population have
significantly dropped due to one
of the biggest threats to bats –
White Nose Syndrome disease
(WNS) This fungus-caused
disease has already wiped out
massive population of bats in
the North America.
The parasitic fungus,
Pseudogymnoascus destructans,
invades the skin of hibernating
bats and destroys their
hydration and hibernation
cycles causing them to awake
during winter, burning up
limited fat reserves and
eventually die.
It will take a long time for bats’
population to recover from this
deadly disease since bats have a
very low reproductive rate.
Green Energy killing
Bats?
Despite it is encouraged to use
green renewable energy, study
from the University of Colorado
Denver discovered that more
than 600,000 bats were killed
by wind energy turbines in 2012.
“ I am not against wind
energy. It’s clean, it reduces
pollution and it creates jobs.
But there are negative
impacts. Still, I think this is
a problem we can solve. ”
Said Dr Hayes from UC Denver.
How can you help
bats?
Join Bat Conservation Trust or
any bat conservation
association and volunteer in
researches and bat conservation
events! Scientists are trying to
find out the reasons and causes
behind the spreading of White
Nose Syndrome and hopefully
find a solution to stop the
spreading in the near future.
Figure below showed the map of current WNS
(White Nose Syndrome) status.
Bats have evolved in such
they developed special
tendons in their legs to
allow them hang upside
down without using
energy to clinch their
muscle, called tendon
locking mechanism
(TLM). When a bat finds a
good spot to hang out and
grabs on with its feet, the
tendon pulls down and
the saw-teeth in its
tendons slide along the
ribbings like ratchet,
holding the feet clenched
without wasting any
energy from its muscle.
Checkout Youtube video: Why
Don't Sleeping Bats Fall Down?
By SciShow
For more information,
Contact:
Bat Helpline: 0345 1300 228
Bat Conservation Trust
5th floor,
Quadrant House,
250 Kennington Lane,
London SE11 5RD
United Kingdom
National Bat Monitoring
Programme (NBMP)
Philip Briggs
Tel: 020 7820 7179
Email: nbmp@bats.org.uk
Bat Conservation Trust
The Bat Conservation Trust supports over 100 local bat groups and 5000 members and works with volunteers,
scientists, industry and government both locally and nationally on a range of projects. To achieve our vision of a
world where bats and people thrive together in harmony our work focuses on discovering more about bats and
how they use the landscape, taking action to protect bats and enhance the landscapes on which they rely and
inspiring people about bats and their environment, engaging them in their conservation.