Title
PLANNING FOR THE UNPREDICTABLE: WHITE NOSE SYNDROME ARRIVAL AND POTENTIAL IMPACTS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA. Abstracts from the 2013 Annual Meeting of the Society for Northwestern Vertebrate Biology, Held in Cooperation With NW Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation, Squamish, British Columbia, April 8–12, 2013
Author(s)
Govindarajulu, P.;Lausen, C.;Schwantje, H.
Published
2013
Publisher
Northwestern Naturalist
Abstract
White Nose Syndrome (WNS) is an emerging disease in bats in North America caused by the fungusGeomyces destructans. First documented in 2006 in New York, the disease has spread hundreds of kilometers each year and has killed over 5 million bats in less than 5 y. White Nose Syndrome was first documented in Canada in 2010 and has now spread to all the provinces east of Ontario. The primary mode of transmission is currently thought to be through bat to bat contact, although the role of humans in the introduction of WNS to North America and its subsequent spread is still debatable. In response to the devastation caused by this disease, the national plan to manage WNS in Canada lists 5 priority actions for 2013: establish national coordination, monitor bat populations, carry out surveillance for WNS and Geomyces destructans, mitigate WNS where present, and promote research into WNS detection and mitigation. The arrival of WNS in the Pacific Northwest including British Columbia is unpredictable because the extent of bat to bat contact across the Rockies is not well understood, and the potential for human vectored transport of the disease cannot be easily monitored or controlled. The detection and management of the disease is also a challenge due to large knowledge gaps in bat winter range and behavior in British Columbia. This talk presents early results of winter monitoring for bats in southern Vancouver Island and discusses the potential for these early results to inform WNS management in British Columbia.
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PUB13894