Bats are among farmers’ oldest defense against pests, as the fuzzy flying mammal is known to eat thousands of insects a night. Studies estimate they could provide billions of dollars in savings a year.
But a deadly fungus that has already killed large portions of certain species of bat in the eastern U.S. might be spreading in Oklahoma.
A new study from the University of Central Oklahoma examined the number of tricolored bats — which have declined by 90% in some parts of the country — in western Oklahoma caves from 2005 to 2024. The gypsum caves they monitored started with about 701, the scientists estimate, and are now home to just 34.
In western Oklahoma, the tiny species first tested positive for the fungus that triggers white-nose syndrome in 2019. White fuzz on the bat’s face normally shows up a couple of years after the positive results.
A bat tested a year before in a different location was also confirmed to have the disease, according to the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.
Lynda Loucks, collections manager of UCO’s Natural History Museum and professor of environmental biology, braced herself in anticipation of sick and dying bats in the western caves she has visited for about 30 years after confirming the fungus was present.
What she found instead was a group alive and healthy.
“It made me hopeful that maybe there's been some resistance built up and because there's not a huge population of tricolors — there's dozens to a couple hundred in the western half — then maybe somehow they're overcoming that,” said Loucks, who worked on the study.
A sighting of white-nose near the caves in April 2024 confirmed the disease’s presence. Still, Loucks said, Oklahoma bats could be more prepared for it now than their eastern counterparts were when it was first discovered in New York in 2006.
A 2020 study from the University of Michigan found a possible genetic adaptation to white-nose syndrome. The research focused on another species, the little brown bat, which is mostly found in the northern United States.
Tricolored bats have a modest population in Oklahoma that seems to be shrinking from human activities like pollution, pesticide use and wind turbine production, Loucks said. The multi-colored mammal weighs less than an ounce and prefers to be among trees and leaves in the summer.
Oklahoma is along the species’ westernmost range as the bat is found in higher numbers in the eastern portion of the country.
“Where we're situated, I think we're so fortunate to have all the bats that we have and there's just a million reasons why they're worth saving,” Loucks said.
Aside from the animal’s contribution to the state’s agricultural sector, the bats are also a key source of food for predators like hawks and owls. Loucks said she plans to continue monitoring tricolored bats and other species for the disease.
“We're seeing some hits, but I'm hopeful that we're not going to see big die-offs, I think that every year and so far so good,” she said.
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