Tricolored Bat: Listed as Endangered

US officials have announced recently to list the tricoloured bat as endangered.

• A fungal disease that attacks while bats are hibernating has brought the tricolored bat to the brink of extinction.
• Tricolored bats live in 39 states east of the Rocky Mountains, as well as parts of Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize and Nicaragua.
• But white-nose syndrome— caused by a fungus that develops on cave-dwelling bats during hibernation — is decimating the bat's population in North America at unprecedented rates.
• White-nose syndrome has killed off millions of bats across the continent, wiping out 90% to 100% of colonies in some sites.

About the species:

• The tricolored bat, formerly known as the eastern pipistrelle, is one of the smallest bats in North America.
• Tricolored bats are a hibernating species and have the longest hibernation period of any bat species in their range.
• When not hunkering down for the winter, they may be found in a wide variety of habitats to roost and forage.  
• When feeding, these bats can catch insects in the air as often as every 2 seconds and increase their body mass by 25 percent in only half an hour.