This year’s flood of tragic news about White-nose Syndrome became a deluge in May. The WNS fungus was confirmed on another endangered species, the gray bat – putting its impressive recovery at grave risk. The fungus also leaped into Oklahoma and the cave myotis, potentially opening the American West and possibly Mexico to this devastating disease ...more

The city of Austin, Texas – hometown of Bat Conservation International and summer home of the world’s largest urban bat colony – is going all-out for its first annual Night of the Bat celebration on Sunday, June 6. The guests of honor are the 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats that live under the Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge in downtown Austin and stage a dramatic emergence each summer evening for their nightly insect hunt. But those beloved bats will have a lot of competition for the public’s attention. The free festivities include a rock concert; an appearance by Adam West, TV’s original Batman, and a replica Batmobile; an aerial dance performance; and public-education programs by BCI...more

Flowers pollinated by bats produce “a ton of pollen” compared with flowers that depend on, for example, hummingbirds for pollination, biologist Nathan Muchhala told ScienceNow, the online news site for the journal Science. Scientists have assumed that’s because bats are such inefficient pollinators that they need more pollen to do the job...more