WASHINGTON (CN) — With bats — important pollinators and insect pest controllers — under siege from white-nose syndrome, the Chiroptera animal order got some rare good news Tuesday, when the Fish and Wildlife Service said the lesser long-nosed bat has recovered sufficiently to be removed from the endangered species list.

It is the first bat to be delisted due to recovery, Fish and Wildlife said.

White-nose syndrome, a fungal disease, has devastated bats around the country, even as other important pollinators, such as bees and butterflies, are struggling with problems of their own, some naturally induced, some the result of pesticides.

White nose syndrome is not a significant threat to the lesser long-nosed bat, as the disease affects mainly hibernating bats, and the lesser long-nosed bat (Leptonycteris yuerbabuenae) does not hibernate.

Grazing, development, roost destruction, vandalism and squatting in caves, improper agave harvesting, vampire bat control methods, invasive species and fire are some of the major threats to this species.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service led a collaborative conservation effort for three decades to bring this nectar-feeding migratory bat back from the brink of extinction.

Numbering fewer than 1,000 in only 14 known roosts when it is was listed as endangered in 1988, Fish and Wildlife estimates there are 200,000 lesser long-nosed bats today at 75 roosts in the U.S. Southwest and Mexico.

“The recovery of the amazing lesser long-nosed bat shows the Endangered Species Act is working,” Michael Robinson, conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity, told Courthouse News in an email.

“This landmark conservation law has saved more than 99 percent of species given its protections from extinction. And it’s put hundreds more, including this amazing flying mammal, on the road to recovery.”

Bats, never a popular endangered species such as cute panda bears or impressive whales, nevertheless perform important functions for humans, including pollination and mosquito control. Some animal ethologists think a single bat can consume nearly its body weight in mosquitoes each night.

The less long-nose’s recovery team includes biologists, researchers in the United States and Mexico, tribal, state and federal entities such as the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and the Army’s Fort Huachuca, nongovernmental organizations, citizen scientists and even Tequila producers in Mexico, the agency says.

The bats are vital to the Tequila industry, as they pollinate and disperse seeds of the agave cactus, used for Tequila. Mexican producers integrated harvest and cultivation practices to support the bats and even market “bat-friendly Tequila.”

Tequila, like Champagne, is produced only in one geographic region, in Tequila’s case, the Mexican state of Jalisco. Agave-based liquor produced outside of Jalisco therefore cannot be called Tequila. In the state of Oaxaca, it is called mezcal.

Educating the public about the value of bats has been a vital component in their recovery. Destruction of bat roosts due to fear of bats has been reduced due to public education and installation of bat access gates designed by Bat Conservation International, which prevent people from getting into the roosts.

Mexico’s public education campaign helped its livestock industry distinguish between the lesser long-nosed bat and vampire bats, which feed upon cattle. As a result of changing attitudes, Mexico was able to remove the lesser long-nosed bat from its endangered species list in 2015.

Citizen scientists in Southern Arizona monitored nighttime bat use of hummingbird feeders and helped biologists capture and fit the bats with radio transmitters, which helped researchers understand the bats’ migrations and find their roosting sites so they could be protected.

“The science clearly shows threats to the bat have been eliminated or reduced to the point that the bat has recovered,” said Fish and Wildlife’s Southwest regional director Amy Lueders.

“The Service is proud of our strong, decades-long partnerships with very diverse stakeholders on behalf of the lesser long-nosed bat. Without partnerships and collaborations such as these, successful recovery would not be possible.”

Environmentalists noted that Fish and Wildlife has been challenged by the time constraints of the Endangered Species Act and the agency’s chronic underfunding.

As often as not, the federal government does not list a species for protection without a lawsuit, and this case is no different.

Though usually conservation groups sue the agency to get imperiled species listed, in this case New Mexico Cattle Growers Association and others sued in 2015 to compel Fish and Wildlife to act on its own recommendation to downlist the bats from endangered to threatened in its 2007 five-year review.

The Pacific Legal Foundation, on behalf of ranchers and farm bureaus, petitioned the agency in July 2012 to act on the downlisting recommendation in the five-year review. In September 2013, Fish and Wildlife published a 90-day petition finding that the downlisting action was warranted.

The cattle growers sued two years later in the absence of further action by the agency. The case was settled with the stipulation that a 12-month finding would be published by the end of 2016. Fish and Wildlife published the finding and the proposed delisting of the bats in January 2017.

Since the bats are found mainly on public lands in the United States, its endangered status conflicted with grazing rights. Even a downlisting would have benefited the ranchers, because a special rule available with threatened species, but not with endangered species, would allow ranchers more livestock grazing on land in the bat’s range.

Now that the bats are delisted, margarita drinkers who understand the importance of pollinator species can celebrate.

The delisting of the lesser long-nosed bat will be effective 30 days from the expected publication date of the final rule on Wednesday, April 18. Fish and Wildlife is working on a post-delisting monitoring plan, to ensure the bats continue to thrive. </s> Wildlife managers in the American Southwest say a once-rare bat important to the pollination of plants used to produce tequila has made a comeback and is being removed from the federal endangered species list.The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced the delisting of the lesser long-nosed bat Tuesday, making it the first bat ever removed from the nation's list of threatened and endangered species.The decision comes a year after first being proposed in the U.S.Mexico delisted the bat in 2015.Federal officials say it has taken 30 years of conservation efforts by biologists and volunteers in Mexico and the U.S., as well as tequila producers in Mexico to rebuild a healthy population.Now, there are about 200,000 of the nectar-feeding animals and dozens of roost sites. </s> The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is suggesting that the lesser long-nosed bat be removed from Endangered Species Act protections. The tiny mammal — responsible for pollinating agave plants — has reportedly recovered from near extinction. The lesser long-nosed bat was originally listed in 1988 when there were fewer than 1,000 in the southwestern U.S. and Mexico. Today, there are about 200,000.

“The science clearly shows threats to the bat have been eliminated or reduced to the point that the bat has recovered,” Fish and Wildlife Service Southwest regional director Amy Lueders said in a release. “The Service is proud of our strong, decades-long partnerships with very diverse stakeholders on behalf of the lesser long-nosed bat. Without partnerships and collaborations such as these, successful recovery would not be possible.”

International repopulation efforts are credited to biologists and researchers; state, federal, and tribal entities; non-governmental organizations; and tequila producers, who are “increasingly integrating harvest and cultivation practices,” to help safeguard the bat’s population. This is especially important because tequila production relies on these specific bats for pollination. These creatures even inspired a movement toward eco-conscious “bat-friendly” tequila — if you see this message on a product label, it means that the plant was naturally pollinated.

Southern Arizona residents have also assisted by monitoring bats’ nighttime use of hummingbird feeders for a full decade. This gave biologists get a better understanding of migration timing. The residents also helped capture bats and affix radio transmitters to them to lead them to their roosting and foraging sites, many of which are managed by federal agencies.

These entities — the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, and the U.S. Army’s Fort Huachuca — have reportedly integrated the bat’s forage plants (agaves, and saguaro and organ pipe cacti) into their land use and resource management plans. They’ve also made an effort to deter human disturbance in caves and abandoned mines where bats are found. This includes the installation of special gates that allow the pollinators to enter and exit at their leisure, yet prohibit human traffic.

As the Fish and Wildlife Service continues to monitor lesser long-nosed bats, it is expected that the animal will be officially removed from the Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife 30 days after its the proposal is published in the Federal Register. Thanks to successful conservation efforts, lesser long-nosed bats are now more likely to survive their full natural lifespan — which can last multiple decades, making bats some of the world’s longest-lived animals for their size. </s> In a conservation first made possible by volunteers, scientists, and a splash of tequila, the lesser long-nosed bat is no longer endangered—the first U.S. bat species to officially recover from the imminent threat of extinction.

“The science clearly shows threats to the bat have been eliminated or reduced to the point that the bat has recovered,” said Amy Lueders, the southwest regional director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in a statement. “The Service is proud of our strong, decades-long partnerships with very diverse stakeholders on behalf of the lesser long-nosed bat. Without partnerships and collaborations such as these, successful recovery would not be possible.”

The lesser long-nosed bat is one of three bat species in the United States that feeds on nectar. One of the species’s major subpopulations migrates between the United States and Mexico. They mate and wait out the winter in southern and central Mexico, roosting together by the thousands to keep warm. In the spring, they migrate north to northern Mexico and southern Arizona, giving birth in many-female “maternity caves.”

Fly Up Close to a Long-Nosed Bat in Hypnotic Slow-Mo

The bats colonize a string of caves and abandoned mines along an agave-rich “nectar trail” from southern Mexico to Arizona. For decades, these roosts—and the bats within them—were under serious threat.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, drug and human traffickers operating on the U.S.-Mexico border regularly made use of the caves, disturbing the bats and sometimes killing them outright. Recreational cavers also spooked the bats, and vandals harassed them.

What’s more, Mexico’s efforts to control vampire bats—which can transmit rabies—had too often spilled over into killing other bat species. And the bats’ favorite foods, the pollen and nectar from agave plants and cacti, were getting harder and harder to find.

These various indignities took their toll. When the species was declared endangered in 1988, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimated that the bats were down to fewer than a thousand individuals, strewn across only 14 known roosts in the U.S. and Mexico.

Binational Bats

For the last three decades, however, the U.S. and Mexico have cooperated to bring the lesser long-nosed bat back from the brink. Now, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that there are some 200,000 bats living in at least 75 roosts between the two countries.

“This is a great example of binational conservation collaboration—of people working on both sides of the border to not just monitor but also take actions to protect this species,” says National Geographic explorer Winifred Frick, the chief scientist for Bat Conservation International.

Government agencies in the U.S. and Mexico worked to protect agaves and other food sources, such as saguaros. Conservation groups built “bat gates” that prevented humans from entering caves and abandoned mines that the bats had made their home. And volunteers across southern Arizona regularly called in whenever the bats fed on their hummingbird feeders, giving scientists regular updates on the animals’ range.

In 2007, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recommended relabeling the lesser long-nosed bat from endangered to threatened. In 2008, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature made a similar move, upgrading the species from Vulnerable to Near Threatened status. And by 2015, Mexico removed the bat from its endangered species list.

In January 2017, the U.S. first announced its intent to follow suit, a decision finalized on April 17, Bat Appreciation Day. Officials have drafted a plan to monitor the bat species, to be sure that its recovery sticks—an effort buoyed by Mexico’s tequila producers.

Bat-Friendly Tequila

To make tequila from agave, the plant must be harvested before it flowers, to ensure that the plant’s valuable sugars remain in its piña, its iconic, spiky base. Bats can’t feed on these flowerless agave—a cruel irony, since bats are agave’s natural pollinators.

TIL: If You Like Tequila, You Should Love Bats. Here’s Why.

National Geographic explorer Rodrigo Medellín, who has tirelessly worked to conserve the lesser long-nosed bat, has helped solve this quandary. A program he recently started certifies tequila producers as “bat-friendly” if they let some of their agave plants flower, effectively serving them up as bat food. (Learn more about bats and tequila.)

These and other efforts will be needed to secure a future for the lesser long-nosed bat, as well as its relatives. Frick emphasizes that the Mexican long-nosed bat, a closely related species, remains endangered—in large part because it has a less flexible, agave-heavy diet than the lesser long-nosed bat. </s> ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Wildlife managers in the American Southwest say a once-rare bat important to the pollination of plants used to produce tequila has made a comeback and is being removed from the federal endangered species list.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced the delisting of the lesser long-nosed bat Tuesday, making it the first bat ever removed from the nation's list of threatened and endangered species.

The decision comes a year after first being proposed in the U.S.

FILE--This 2013 file photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife shows nectar-feeding lesser long-nosed bats attracted to a hummingbird feeder during a citizen science bat migration monitoring project in southern Arizona. Wildlife managers in the American Southwest say a once-rare bat important to the pollination of plants used to produce tequila has made a comeback and is being removed from the federal endangered species list. (Richard Spitzer/U.S. Fish and Wildlife via AP, file)

Federal officials say it has taken 30 years of conservation efforts by biologists and volunteers in Mexico and the U.S., as well as tequila producers in Mexico to rebuild a healthy population.

Now, there are about 200,000 of the nectar-feeding animals and dozens of roost sites. </s> ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Wildlife managers in the American Southwest say a once-rare bat important to the pollination of plants used to produce tequila has made a comeback and is being removed from the U.S. endangered species list.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s announcement Tuesday made the lesser long-nosed bat, which ranges from Mexico to southern Arizona and New Mexico, the first bat ever removed from the nation’s list of threatened and endangered species.

The decision comes a year after first being proposed and three years after Mexico delisted the animal, which depends on the nectar of agaves, cactuses and other flowering plants.

It has taken 30 years of conservation efforts by biologists and volunteers in both countries as well as tequila producers and agave growers in Mexico to rebuild a healthy population.

There were once thought to be fewer than 1,000 lesser long-nosed bats in 14 known roosts throughout the region. Now, there are about 200,000 of the nectar-feeding animals and dozens of roost sites.

With the population trending upward, regional officials with the Fish and Wildlife Service say the science shows threats to the bat have been eliminated or reduced to the point where they can consider the species recovered.

In Mexico, tequila producers who rely on agaves are integrating more harvest and cultivation practices in recognition of the bats being key pollinators. Some are marketing “bat-friendly tequila.”

In southern Arizona, residents for a decade have monitored bats’ nighttime use of hummingbird feeders. It provided biologists with a clearer understanding of migration timing and allowed for the opportunity to capture bats and affix radio transmitters that aided in finding roost sites.

Scientists and state wildlife managers describe the delisting as a conservation success that resulted from decades of work.

“The story of the lesser long-nosed bat shows that conservation and science can work together to provide species the chance to recover and persist,” Winifred Frick, chief scientist at Bat Conservation International, said in a statement.

To ensure the bats continue to thrive, the Fish and Wildlife Service is preparing a monitoring plan that will focus on roosting sites and availability of forage.

Federal land managers in New Mexico and Arizona, including at the U.S. Army’s Fort Huachuca, already are including forage plants such as agaves, saguaros and other cactuses in their resource management plans to help the species.

Limiting human access to caves with roost sites and abandoned mines in the U.S. also has benefited bat populations.

Recovery efforts have included education aimed at changing attitudes about bats and improving identification of different species. Historically, the lesser long-nosed bat was a victim of campaigns to control vampire bats over rabies concerns and their effects on livestock.

In reviewing the species, biologists considered the potential effects that climate change may have on the “nectar trail” that the bats follow as they migrate. They say the bat is flexible and adaptive enough to remain viable under changing conditions. </s> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bats are the longest-lived mammals relative to body size, and a species called the greater mouse-eared bat lives especially long. Researchers now have unlocked some of this bat's longevity secrets, with hints for fighting the effects of aging in people.

 Scientists said on Wednesday that unlike in people and most other animals, in this bat species the structures called telomeres located at the end of chromosomes, thread-like strands inside a cell's nucleus that carry genes determining heredity, do not shorten with age.

 Only 19 mammal species are longer-lived than humans relative to body size. Eighteen of them are bats, some living more than four decades. The other is a weird African rodent called a naked mole rat.

 The researchers identified two genes in the greater mouse-eared bat that may be responsible for its unique longevity adaptation. These mechanisms could be the focus of future studies on aging, with an eye toward extending healthy lifespans in people, the researchers said.

 Telomeres are protective caps at the ends of chromosomes that shorten each time a cell divides. This drives the natural aging process, leading to a breakdown of cells that over time can drive tissue deterioration and eventually death.

 "Studying exceptionally long-living mammals that have naturally evolved mechanisms to fight aging is an alternative way to identify the molecular basis of extended 'health spans,'" said biologist Emma Teeling of University College Dublin in Ireland, one of the study leaders. "Bats are an exciting new model species that will enable us to identify new molecular mechanisms that drive healthy aging."

 The researchers studied 493 individual bats from four species: the greater mouse-eared bat and Bechstein's bat, both members of the bat genus called Myotis; the greater horseshoe bat; and the common bent-wing bat. Of these, the greater mouse-eared bat had the longest lifespan, about 37 years.

 The greater mouse-eared bat and the closely related Bechstein's bat had telomeres that did not shorten with age, suggesting that Myotis bats share this characteristic. Another Myotis bat, Brandt's bat, holds the bat longevity record of 41 years. 

 Based on body size, the greater mouse-eared bat would be predicted to have a maximum lifespan of four years. Its range spans from Western Europe into the Middle East. It preys on large, ground-dwelling creatures like beetles, crickets and spiders.

 The research was published in the journal Science Advances.

 

 (Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Sandra Maler) </s> Two vertebrate species go extinct every year on average, but few people notice, perhaps because the rate seems relatively slow - not a clear and present threat to the natural systems we depend on. This view overlooks trends of extreme decline in animal populations, which tell a more dire story with cascading consequences, according to a new study that provides the first global evaluation of these population trends.

"This is the case of a biological annihilation occurring globally, even if the species these populations belong to are still present somewhere on Earth," said co-author Rodolfo Dirzo, a professor of biology.

A 2015 study co-authored by Paul Ehrlich, professor emeritus of biology, and colleagues showed that Earth has entered an era of mass extinction unparalleled since the dinosaurs died out 66 million years ago. The specter of extinction hangs over about 41 percent of all amphibian species and 26 percent of all mammals, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which maintains a list of threatened and extinct species. This global disaster scene has the fingerprints of habitat loss, overexploitation, invasive organisms, pollution, toxification and climate change.

The new analysis, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, looks beyond species extinctions to provide a clear picture of dwindling populations and ranges. The researchers mapped the ranges of 27,600 species of birds, amphibians, mammals and reptiles - a sample representing nearly half of known terrestrial vertebrate species - and analyzed population losses in a sample of 177 well-studied mammal species between 1990 and 2015.

Using range reduction as a proxy for population loss, the study finds more than 30 percent of vertebrate species are declining in population size and range. Of the 177 mammals for which the researchers had detailed data, all have lost 30 percent or more of their geographic ranges and more than 40 percent have lost more than 80 percent of their ranges. Tropical regions have had the greatest number of decreasing species while temperate regions have seen similar or higher proportions of decreasing species. Particularly hard hit have been the mammals of south and southeast Asia, where all the large-bodied species of mammals analyzed have lost more than 80 percent of their geographic ranges.

The study's maps suggest that as much as 50 percent of the number of animal individuals that once shared Earth have disappeared, as have billions of animal populations. This amounts to "a massive erosion of the greatest biological diversity in the history of Earth," the authors write.

"The massive loss of populations and species reflects our lack of empathy to all the wild species that have been our companions since our origins," said the new study's lead author, Gerardo Ceballos of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. "It is a prelude to the disappearance of many more species and the decline of natural systems that make civilization possible."

Why does the loss of populations and biological diversity matter? Aside from being what the scientists call a prelude to species extinction, the losses rob us of crucial ecosystem services such as honeybees' crop pollination, pest control and wetlands' water purification. We also lose intricate ecological networks involving animals, plants and microorganisms - leading to less resilient ecosystems and pools of genetic information that may prove vital to species' survival in a rapidly changing global environment.

"Sadly, our descendants will also have to do without the aesthetic pleasures and sources of imagination provided by our only known living counterparts in the universe," said Ehrlich.

In the meantime, the overall scope of population losses makes clear the world cannot wait to address biodiversity damage, according to the authors. They call for curbs on the basic drivers of extinction - human overpopulation and overconsumption - and challenge society to move away from "the fiction that perpetual growth can occur on a finite planet."

Dirzo is also the Bing Professor in Environmental Science. Dirzo and Ehrlich are senior fellows at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.

More information: Gerardo Ceballos el al., "Biological annihilation via the ongoing sixth mass extinction signaled by vertebrate population losses and declines," PNAS (2017). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1704949114 </s> Humpbacks also taken off list HONOLULU – Federal authorities took most humpback whales off the endangered species list Tuesday, saying their numbers have recovered through international efforts to protect the giant mammals. The move applies to nine of the 14 distinct populations of humpback whales. Their numbers have steadily grown since a global ban on commercial whaling started nearly 50 years ago, the National Marine Fisheries Service said. The moratorium remains in effect. However, four distinct populations remain endangered and one is now listed as threatened, some of which inhabit U.S. waters. The Central America population, which feeds off the West Coast, and the Western North Pacific population, which inhabits the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands, are still endangered. The Mexico population, which feeds off the West Coast and Alaska, is threatened.

If you ask some wildlife conservationists, it’s time to break out the celebratory bamboo and digest the chunks for 14 hours at a go.

Giant pandas are no longer endangered, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, the non-governmental organization that maintains the authoritative list of the world’s rarest species. Officially, the panda is now “vulnerable” – a species still at risk, but a step back from the brink of extinction.

But the Chinese government is not yet ready to agree with the new classification.

The IUCN announced the panda’s status change in Hawaii on Sunday, in an update to the organization’s Red List. That list contains nearly 83,000 species, of which nearly 3 in 10 are threatened with extinction. The panda was not the only animal to get a status update. A sharp decrease in an Eastern gorilla subspecies, as the Washington Post reported, lead to a classification of “critically endangered.” Species are classified on a spectrum from “least concern” to “extinct,” a system the IUCN uses to inform and influence government wildlife policies.

“The improved status confirms that the Chinese government’s efforts to conserve this species are effective,” the IUCN said in a news release. When the IUCN first classified pandas in 1965, the organization listed the species as “very rare.” Pandas would remain rare – or, in newer terminology, endangered – until the animal’s most recent update.

Marco Lambertini, the director general of the WWF, said in a statement, “The recovery of the panda shows that when science, political will and engagement of local communities come together, we can save wildlife and also improve biodiversity.” The panda is particularly dear to the WWF, as the wildlife conservation organization has used the large black-and-white mammal as its symbol for more than five decades.

But is difficult to count the animals with absolute confidence – a widely used method relies on identifying individuals from tooth marks in bamboo, extracted from scat. China has surveyed wild pandas four times since 1974. In the third survey, completed in 2004, China found bite-mark evidence for 1,596 animals; a decade later, the most recent survey documented 1,864 pandas in an effort that required 60,000 person-days and took place across some 17,000 wooded square miles.

Complicating the matter is the fact that biologists have criticized the accuracy of comparing those surveys.

As Nature magazine pointed out in 2015, the latest survey took place over a larger area. And although DNA testing can give more accurate panda counts, fecal samples collected in the fourth survey were “not sufficiently fresh” to provide genetic material, according to the IUCN.

This uncertainty is why some experts and Chinese officials are not celebrating the IUCN update.

Marc Brody, an adviser to China’s Wolong Nature Reserve, told National Geographic that “it is too early to conclude that pandas are actually increasing in the wild – perhaps we are simply getting better at counting wild pandas.”

China will continue to keep the panda under first class protection; the country has made the panda a particular conservation focus, far more so than river dolphins, pangolins and other rare species.

“If we downgrade their conservation status, or neglect or relax our conservation work, the populations and habitats of giant pandas could still suffer irreversible loss and our achievements would be quickly lost,” China’s State Forestry Administration, which spearheads the giant panda survey, said in a statement to the Associated Press on Monday. “Therefore, we’re not being alarmist by continuing to emphasize the panda species’ endangered status.”
The lesser long-nosed bat, once on the brink of extinction, is removed from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service list of endangered mammals and birds. It is the first U.S. bat species to officially recover from the imminent threat of extinction.