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Why Are Bats Dying In Hordes?

By R. Siva Kumar | Update Date: Jan 22, 2016 01:15 PM EST

All over the world, bats are dying, not just due to the white-nose syndrome, but due to new threats, according to scientists.

"Many of the 1,300 species of bats on Earth are already considered threatened or reclining," said Tom O'Shea, one of the researchers, in a news release. "The new trends in reported human-related mortality may not be sustainable."

Bats have a good record in being long-lived, slow-breeding mammals playing vital roles in the earth's ecosystems. Apart from being important pollinators and seed dispersers in tropical regions, bats are also the main predators of insects that fly in the night.

Researchers gathered scientific literature from 1790 to 2015, seeking for annual mortality events that involved more than 10 bats in every event. These "multiple mortality events" were divided into nine categories that included natural as well as human causes. Finally, they categorised 1,180 emortality global events that showed over 200 years of history.

Earlier, bats were killed by humans, but now, it is due to accidents with wind turbines and the white-nose syndrome in North America, apart from the extreme weather.

The study shows that it is important to keep in mind some factors while dealing with bat mortality, even as these can be used to make the public aware.

The findings are published in the journal Mammal Review.

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