The week of Halloween is international Bat Week. State bat biologist Shannon Hilty loves the Big Sky’s bats and says you should too.
"They're eating a lot of insects, collectively, our 15 species,” Hilty says.
While the bats are out for a late-night meal, they’re also providing an essential economic service: pest control for farmers.
"That value is estimated to be $680 million a year in Montana alone,” she says.
But that free pest control could be at risk. White-nose syndrome is threatening populations. It’s caused by a fungus. In the five years since it was first found in Montana, it’s wiped out colonies and is spreading west.
“It's not looking great, but thankfully, there are some actions that we are taking to help bats persist, and we're still holding on hope that it’ll play out differently,” Hilty says.
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks started vaccinating bats against the fungus near Libby this summer. With lots of helping hands, they got doses into the mouths of nearly 900 bats.
“That’s the largest number of bats that have been vaccinated within a single evening anywhere ever,” Hilty says.
The vaccine has shown positive results on bat colonies across the West.
Hilty says Montanans can help our bats by learning more about them.
“One of the conservation threats bats as a whole still face is just negative public perception … there's only three species of vampire bats globally. They don't occur in Montana and they don't feed on humans.”
With Halloween coming up, she says to remember bats don’t want to mess with people any more than we want them to mess with us.
