Information on winter behavior of temperate vespertilionid bats in mexico is still limited

The Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service Region 5 awarded a $132,710 Project Grant to Bioconciencia A.C. from September 1, 2022 to August 31, 2024 under the White-nose Syndrome National Response Implementation program (CFDA 15.684).

The grant will support continued efforts to document winter bat ecology in Mexico and assess potential entry and spread of Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd) fungus. Key activities include winter colony counts and searches for new bat hibernacula, with documentation of physical and ecological characteristics. The grant will also fund monitoring of Pd presence/absence in known and new hibernacula sites in Mexico. Additional outcomes include two undergraduate theses comparing bat populations in central Mexico to those affected by Pd in North America, and a manuscript on winter behavior of the endemic bat species Myotis planiceps.

Considering the current trends of PD fungus to southern latitudes in north america, IT is expected that PD will be detected soon in mexican territory. Given that mexico holds the southernmost hibernating bats in north america, a better understanding of hibernation as well as continuous surveillance of mexican BAT populations and PD surveys must be considered in white nose syndrome response efforts. Thanks to the support and collaboration of national wildlife health center (nwhc), wildlife management institute (WMI) and fish and wildlife service (FWS), during our five years of evaluation we were able to explore more than 150 and we found 78 winter roosts with hibernating bats of 10 vespertilionid species, located in 21 sites in 11 states of northern and central mexico. We also conducted PD sampling in 19 of these sites and we obtained relevant data on winter colony counts, BAT skin temperatures and adjacent substrate temperatures where bats roost, and roosting behavior and movements of the endemic and endangered BAT myotis planiceps prior to winter.for this proposal, our goals are to document the ecology of hibernating bats in mexico and assess the potential entry and invasion progress of pseudogymnoascus destructans (PD) into mexican territory. Therefore, we will continue with winter colony counts and will search for new BAT hibernacula in mexico, with the documentation of physical and ecological characteristics in hibernacula, and with the searching of winter roosts of myotis planiceps. In addition, we are motivating to two undergraduate students to perform thesis in this project, whom will be in charge of to compare ecological features between hibernating BAT populations in central mexico and those affected by PD fungus in north america, and to explore the association of environmental and ecological features with seasonal and spatial variations in the use of caves by hibernating bats in central mexico. We will continue with the monitoring of the presence absence of PD in hibernating bats of mexico in known sites and expand IT to new sites. The relevant outcomes will be two undergraduate theses, reports of results of the presence absence of PD fungus in mexico, and a manuscript about winter behavior of myotis planiceps. We have been training and collaborating with people from these organizations for the last four years, and we will continue to work with them, and to invite other key participants from other governmental and non governmental institutions, local environmental agencies and interested research groups. We will meet with local and government authorities so we can keep making an impact on decision making over the areas where we have found hibernacula to date. Thank to international collaboration and trajectory of our research, the current proposal will continue contributing to understanding the winter behavior of hibernating bats, as well as expanding the scope and the scale of the national response to WNS, in an effort to reduce, contain, or control the presence, transmission, and infection of PD in mexico.