Bats

Despite a steady rise in the manufacture and release of synthetic chemicals, research on the ecological effects of pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and industrial chemicals is severely lacking. This blind spot undermines efforts to address global change and achieve sustainability goals. So reports a new study in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. Emma J. Rosi , a freshwater ecologist at the Cary Institute and a co-author on the paper, explains, "To date, global change assessments have ignored synthetic chemical pollution.

In the wake of ongoing debate by experts, neonicotinoid pesticide, imidacloprid, has been proven a threat to the survival of bats in Taiwan after last year being confirmed as harmful to bees by the Environmental Protection Agency of the United States. A research team headed by Wu Chung-hsin (吳忠信), professor in life sciences at National Taiwan Normal University, found that bats feeding on imidacloprid-tainted insects were unable to fly along learned paths, as a result of which they often "got lost" while out hunting.

In her recent Environmental Protection Report entitled Small Steps Forward, the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, Dianne Saxe, called upon the government to put words into action to monitor biodiversity, combat wildlife declines, control invasive species, and follow through on better forest fire management. The large-scale loss of biodiversity is a crisis in Ontario and around the world. Ontario's most "at risk" species are snakes, turtles and freshwater mussels. However, many freshwater fishes, birds and mammals are also experiencing alarming declines.

Dutch researchers have detected a cocktail of 14 different pesticides (fungicides, herbicides, insecticides) in bats. In dead individuals and manure classical insecticides such as DDT and permethrin were found, but the animals were also exposed to the neonicotinoids imidacloprid and thiamethoxam, the herbicides mecoprop and nicosulfuron, and the fungicides iprodione and propiconazole. Pesticides such as imidacloprid, propoxur, thiamethoxam, nicosulfuron and iprodione had not previously been reported to be present in bats.

Scientists call them critical to our environment. They’re a natural form of pest control, consuming millions of insects every night. But across the country, bats are now fighting for survival, as a fungus threatens to cut their numbers. White Nose Syndrome is a fungus that attaches to bats during hibernation. In the past 4 years, it’s killed millions of bats in the eastern and central parts of the country. This year, for the first time, the disease was found on the west coast. “It hasn't been detected in Nevada. It's been detected in Washington state this past April.

Ontario environmental commissioner Dianne Saxe cites a “large-scale loss of biodiversity,” calling it a “crisis in our province and around the world” — a situation she called a “terrible tragedy.” Ontario’s environmental watchdog has warned the government that it needs to do more to conserve the province’s biodiversity. Saxe says the Liberals need to take action to: combat wildlife declines, control invasive species, better monitor biodiversity, and implement better forest fire management, by letting more fires burn to enhance wildlife habitat.

High brown Fritillary butterfly - Once widespread it is now reduced to around 50 sites and threatened with extinction; Great Crested Newt – a sharp decline with only around 75,000 existing across the country; Hen Harrier – One of Britain’s most threatened birds of prey with only around 600 breeding pairs left; Hazel Dormouse – declined by one third in recent years and it is not extinct in 17 counties; Barbastelle Bat – widespread decline and fewer than 5,000 remaining; Ringed plover – only 5,600 breeding pairs remaining; Water vole – populations have dropped by 90 per cent in recent years;