Pennsylvania Game News - August 2022 - 39

even today. We would have had a larger
membership, but several kids were not
allowed to join for fear of physical harm or
that it would open a door to some unknown
evil. When autumn waned, the BSBC was
dissolved as the bats settled into their winter
hibernaculum.
There we were, a group of kids with very
little resources and no internet or media outlets,
having to learn what we could through
firsthand field studies and determination.
And our club, created 22 years before Bat
Conservation International was founded in
1982, arose from a similar desire to gain
knowledge and disseminate it to others.
In a lifetime of working on scores of
wildlife conservation projects, I now realize
they all were, in some way, connected to that
summer long ago. These projects ranged
across a wide variety of subjects: waterfowl
and wetland conservation, wild turkey and
raptor research, children's nature books,
white-tailed deer and elk education, conservation
stamps, magazine columns, authoring
and illustrating outdoor books, painting interpretive
murals, creating wildlife dioramas
and natural history museum design.
There were greater life lessons aloft in
the night, carried on those satiny wings. I
sometimes wonder if some of our accomplishments
stayed with any of the other
BSBC members; an armature, perhaps, for
future problem solving. A seed of ecological
awareness planted that could be passed on.
And I wonder if they felt the huge sense of
loss to learn that more than 95% of our cave
bats have fallen to the ravages of the White
Nose Syndrome (WNS) virus.
Bats are a keystone species, contributing
enormously to the well-being of a healthy
environment by holding, like a keystone,
many other elements of that environment
together. As insectivores, micro-bats eat
tremendous quantities of insects, including
moths, beetles, flies, mosquitoes, midges
and more. Some have called the demise of
the cave bat to be among one of the greatest
ecological disasters ever.
AUGUST 2022
But now, with the onslaught of the WNS
disaster, a crack has opened in the keystone
symbol of Pennsylvania. It might be better
stated that, on a grander scale, the bat's
demise is a tear in the very curtain of night
itself, through which this marvelous and
mysterious citizenry has disappeared.
But an army of professionals and volunteers
have risen in the face of WNS, rallying
determined heroes from colleges and universities,
private and public constituencies,
governmental agencies, and conservation
groups. Forces determined to win a battle
against yet another pathogen invading our
shores. What is most impressive is the high
degree of creativity and outright bravery that
has arisen in this struggle. Also emerging are
new and surprising discoveries about bats. As
we learned in the BSBC, when discoveries
are made, new questions arise. Today, what
have long been considered as absolutes are
being challenged in a new light.
What can people do to help? Get bat
smart. The bat is a friend to the farmer and
gardener; to the tune of more than $400 million
lost annually to the insects that destroy
crops. Bats devour mosquitoes that carry
West Nile virus, and most certainly deserve
a tip of the hat from sportsmen and birders.
Having a cookout but getting eaten alive
by mosquitoes and gnats? Bats can put a
substantial dent in those backyard pest populations.
Become a member of a bat conservation
organization or donate to those research
institutions dedicated to bat survival.
I
'VE BEEN LISTENING to some ultrasonic
Little brown bat vocalizations today,
slowed down to a frequency where I could
hear them. But now, those choruses of chirps
and clicks have been silenced. For millions
of years, bats have danced with the moon
and stars, jousted with painted moths, " saw "
echoes with ears that made visible that which
is unseen. The cries of their plight must not
go unheard. Lonely is the night when cave
bats no longer fly on hushed wings into the
morn.
39
Pennsylvania Game News - August 2022

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