AUTHORS: Daniel Peacock, University of Nebraska Omaha; Thomas Raad, University of Nebraska Omaha; Amanda Ciurej, US Fish and Wildlife Service; Jeremy White, University of Nebraska Omaha; Mark Porath, US Fish and Wildlife Service; Han Li, University of Nebraska Omaha
ABSTRACT: White-nose syndrome has caused severe declines in the populations of northern long-eared bats (Myotis septentrionalis), little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus), and tri-colored bats (Perimyotis subflavus) in the eastern United States since it was first detected in 2006. However, little is known about how these species were impacted in Nebraska where white-nose syndrome was first detected in the winter of 2016-2017. Before white-nose syndrome was first detected in Nebraska, an assessment of these species was conducted acoustically at 105 sites throughout eastern Nebraska between 2012 and 2014. In 2024 summer, we revisited 72 of the 105 previously surveyed sites and added 41 new sites to assess the impact of white-nose syndrome. We followed the North American Bat Monitoring Program Stationary Survey protocol for a more robust dataset. Our preliminary results from the first 60 sites were manually vetted for false positive detections and showed presence of tri-colored bats and little brown bats at approximately 40% of sites. However, only one out of 60 sites had northern long-eared bat detections. We will continue manually vetting for the remaining sites and to account for both false negative and false positive detections. From this data we will construct species distribution models before and after white-nose syndrome to examine how the disease has impacted the distributions of the three species. These distribution models will be used to generate distribution maps that will be used to determine each species’ level of decline, where remnant populations might be, and what kinds of habitats support these remnant populations. Assessment of the impact of white-nose syndrome on these three species will provide insights on how to prioritize key habitat protection to ensure long-term bat conservation in the Great Plains.
