This week on the Al Morning Show a CKDM listener phoned in, wondering why there seem to be fewer bats flying around the Parkland lately.

So the CKDM NewsNow Information team spoke with the experts to find out why.

Quinn Fletcher is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Winnipeg, and confirms there’s been a hit to bat populations in Manitoba — largely due to a disease called white-nose syndrome.

“Bat populations were doing fine in North America and were growing slowly, which is normal. When white-nose hit, it caused populations to go down.”

The relatively new disease putting some of Manitoba's bat species at risk was first detected here in the winter of 2017/2018 in the Interlake region — and more recently in the Riding Mountain National Park area.

White-nose Syndrome occurrence map - by year (2020). Courtesy of www.whitenosesyndrome.org

“I guess it’s not surprising if people are seeing less bats,” said Fletcher, adding that white-nose syndrome is particularly devastating to little brown bats, and northern long-eared bats.

Big brown bats are another species in Manitoba, however, they seem to be somewhat resistant to the disease.

Fletcher says his fellow researchers at the Dr. Craig Willis Bat Lab at the University of Winnipeg are aiming to understand how we can help bat populations deal with the threat of the disease.

“We’re basically trying to highlight how important it is for bats to have good foraging habitat — and if they do have a good eating habitat, this might allow them to become fatter before they go into hibernation and be able to survive the disease,” he said.

Are decreased bat populations related to an increase in mosquitoes?

The post-doctoral researcher at the University of Winnipeg could not confirm if decreased bat populations are related to a possible increase in the number of mosquitoes biting you on your evening walk.

Fletcher says there’s actually been a lot of focus to try and determine what proportion of a bat’s diet is comprised of mosquitoes. 

“Bats definitely eat mosquitoes, but I think if given the choice, bats are more likely targetting bigger things that they get more bang for their buck.”