Are Zoos the Last Hope for Bats?

For months now, a deadly fungus known as White Nose Syndrome has been rapidly spreading through the country's bat population. Once the white fungus appears on a bat's nose, the mortality rate is close to 100 percent. Since it was first detected four years ago in New York, White Nose Syndrome has claimed more than a million bats' lives and has been detected in over a dozen states and Ontario, Canada. It's unknown where the fungus comes from, exactly how it kills the bats, and how many species may be susceptible, but according to wildlife researcher Susan Loeb, Ph.D., there are at least nine bat species who are seriously threatened by the disease.

It's a mysterious epidemic that seems to be growing worse, and it's prompted some experts to question whether the only way to protect bats is by locking them up.

Earlier this month, a meeting took place at the St. Louis Zoo between 35 academics, veterinarians, geneticists, conservationists, biologists and bat rehabilitators to start discussing last-resort options, including taking some bats into captivity or freezing genetic material in order to save the species.

Government agencies are planning to close as many as 30,000 abandoned mines and hundreds of caves to public access in an effort to stop spores from being carried out on clothing. Thousands of federally-managed caves and mines have already been closed. This decision has been controversial among hikers and cave-explorers — some are willing to put away their gear for the sake of the bats, but others say there's not enough evidence that humans are the problem when bats themselves are still flying around and carrying the infection to other populations.

That's where the zoos come into play. The bats wouldn't be taken in to sell admission tickets or be used as "educational" tools, but even serving as sanctuaries, the conservation value of the move is questionable. Until researchers find answers on how the fungus spreads and how to get it out of the caves, it won't be safe to release the bats back into the wild. If they're stuck indefinitely in captivity because their habitat can no longer support them, how does it help the species? And there's the question: Would they even survive the experiment?

Jeremy Coleman, the national White Nose coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, concedes that bringing bats into captivity isn't ideal. "The issue is loaded with lots of ethical and sociological concerns, let alone the scientific challenges," Coleman said. "These animals are very sensitive. They stress easily. They're very hard to maintain. But it's a difficult situation. We're looking at the extinction of multiple species, and we need to know what we should be doing."

As nature's insect control, bats are critical to maintaining both natural ecosystems and healthy crops. They also help stop the spread of insect-borne diseases like the West Nile Virus. "We are in a position of potentially finding out what an important role bats play through their loss," said Mollie Matteson of the Center for Biological Diversity.

Zoos may have a role in staving off extinction for the bats but only as part of a bigger picture; on its own, captivity is not a solution to problem of White Nose Syndrome.

Photo credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Northeast Region