Developing and Evaluating Bat Mitigation Strategies
This project, led by the Wildlife Conservation Society Canada, will evaluate mitigation tools to reduce further impacts on bats, which face unprecedented threats, including white-nose syndrome (WNS), in the Stave Lake area. This project will use knowledge about roost conditions, overall health and reproduction, and roost-switching behaviour to test and evaluate a pilot effort to reduce the mortality rate of WNS. The WNS management strategy developed through this project could be applied widely across watersheds in BC.
Update: Innovative project aims to protect bats from white-nose syndrome
Bats in the Stave River Watershed are getting a helping hand to prepare for the inevitable arrival of white-nose syndrome (WNS), a disease that has killed millions of bats in North America and is expected to arrive in British Columbia.
Bat roosts at two Stave sites have been inoculated with a probiotic-laden clay powder to protect against WNS in this project by the Wildlife Conservation Society Canada with funding from the FWCP. This past summer 325 bats were captured and sampled for probiotic bacteria—results to date confirm these beneficial bacteria are transferring to bat wings.
If successful, this pilot approach to reduce bat mortality due to WNS could be used across the province.