New York is home to at least eight species of bats, the most common ones being the Big Brown Bat, the Eastern Pipistrelle, Eastern Red Bat, Eastern Small-Footed Bat, Hoary Bat, Indiana Bat, Little Brown Bat, and the Northern Long-eared Bat.
None of these native New York bats are vampire or blood-feeding bats.
Bats all over the world play an incredibly important roles in the ecosystems. Bats play an important role in the control of insects, particularly mosquitoes. A single bat can consume up to 1,000 insects in one night, and a family of bats can noticeably help control insect populations for a whole neighborhood.
As a result of widespread destruction of their habitat, misguided human activities, and white nose syndrome, many bat species are now considered endangered and others now classified as threatened.
With White Nose Syndrome recently killing millions of bats at a time, healthy bats are more precious than ever. White Nose Syndrome fungus only attacks bats when temperatures drop, and causes them to come out of hibernation at times they would not normally be awake. This causes the bats use stored fat cells eventually leading to death. Scientists are prediction that extinction for bats is likely in the next 16 years unless a solution can be found to cure this rapidly spreading fungus.
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