White-nose syndrome is wiping out Ohio’s tri-colored bat populations, and researchers are racing to understand more about the unique bat species as it awaits a potential listing under the Endangered Species Act.
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It’s a scary time for bats
While a spooky symbol of Halloween, bats around the world are facing threats of extinction. Bryan Carstens, a professor at The Ohio State University in the Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology who has studied bats for 20 years, explains what you need to know about the unique mammals. EEOB professor Bryan Carstens examines a few of the thousands of bat specimens housed at Ohio State’s Museum of Biological Diversity. How many species of bats are there? About 1,400. My PhD student is conducting research that suggests we might be missing another 400 to 500 species that are very genetically different from one another, but superficially look the same so…