It's been a rough year for all of us, but it's been an even worse one for our local bats. As if the arrival of WNS wasn't enough, bats are now being undeservedly implicated for spreading Covid-19. Baby season has just started and we are operating under new restrictions: no volunteers (social distancing) and wearing masks, gloves, and gowns while caring for and treating bats.

We are on the front lines defending bats and our fundraising has taken a hit, like everyone's, with restrictions on gatherings.
So we're taking it one day at a time.
And this day is Giving Tuesday Now 

These are unprecedented times, and we know that everyone is struggling. We hope you, and those you care about, are staying healthy and managing the uncertainty affecting everyone. 
If you are in a position to donate, please join us!

Donate Now to Defend Bats

We want you to know that we are still here, open as usual, and have implemented new procedures to protect bats and the public. We are asking people to place the box containing the bat on a trailer in our driveway, well over 10 feet from our intake area, and our intake form is now collected digitally.

Many scientists are concerned about the possibility that humans could transmit Covid-19 to North American bats, and out of an abundance of caution, our colleagues at Texas Parks and Wildlife have asked us to quarantine new intakes from other bats, and to wear protective equipment while caring for them. Bat releases have been put on hold until at least the end of May, when research to discover if bats can be infected with the virus may produce an answer.

Our 20 volunteers were furloughed on March 15, and we miss them--for their considerable contributions to the regular tasks at ABR, and just as much, for their presence as friends with a common goal--caring for and protecting bats.

IN DEFENSE OF BATS

What is missing from much of the media about the pandemic is the fact that scientists do not yet know where Covid-19 originated. Scientific investigation is ongoing, but premature media speculation has pinned the blame squarely on bats, resulting in indiscriminate killing of bats in several countries and swaying public opinion against them in others, even though bats did not cause Covid-19, nor can they spread the virus. The vital ecosystem services of bats worldwide, in pest-insect suppression, pollination and seed dispersal, and decades of conservation progress is at stake.

Read our blog posts for reasoned analyses and links to the latest Covid-19 research and expert opinion.  Don't Blame Bats for Covid-19, and help us counter the fear-mongering! Check out the other posts found on our Blog under the Covid-19 menu dropdown while you're there.

WHITE-NOSE SYNDROME UPDATE

Early this year, a cave myotis with White-nose Syndrome, a fungal disease that has killed untold millions of bats since 2006, was found in the Texas Hill Country. At ABR, we normally see only four or five cave myotis (myotis velifer) a year, but February brought us twenty-three in a three-week period. They were emaciated, experiencing organ failure, and had wing-membrane damage characteristic of WNS.  Despite our best efforts, most died within a few days of intake.  We sent them to The National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisconsin for analysis, and cultures for all came back positive for the fungus that causes WNS. We are still awaiting results of histopathological testing, which may be on hold now due to the pandemic. Four of our cave myotis intakes survived and will be in quarantine until we know they have cleared the disease. Intakes of all species, since the arrival of Covid-19, must be held in yet another discrete location, with no releases until further notice.