Surviving White-nose: A New Hope

Fig.1. A Mexican long-tongued bat (Choeronycteris mexicana) feeding at a flower. (Credit: USFWS, 2012)

Nearly 80 percent of all flowering plants and three fourths of food crops are reliant on animal pollinators. Well-known pollinators like bees, butterflies, and moths - as well as more unusual ones like lemurs and geckos - are being celebrated right now for National Pollinator Week, an effort promoted by United States agencies and the nonprofit group Pollinator Partnership. This event is an opportunity for researchers and activists to raise awareness about the importance of pollinators to ecosystems and agriculture, as well as to address precipitous declines in some of these animal species. While many people already know about the disappearance of Monarch butterflies and honeybees, the loss of bats is lesser known and yet has been called North America’s “largest wildlife crisis.”