Volunteers were called on today to join an annual summer bat count in New Jersey that could further determine how many have fallen to the enigmatic "white-nose syndrome" responsible for devastating their Northeastern populations.

As the Congressional Natural Resource Committee in Washington, D.C., began today to review federal responses to the dilemma, the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey launched an effort to monitor roosting spots where bats spend their summers in the state. From old buildings and barns to dead trees, checking roosts may help state biologists confirm their worst fears -- that as many as 95 percent of the state's bats died over the winter.

"We ask our volunteers each year to go to a known bat roost at least twice between now and early August and count them as the bats fly out in the evening," said Maria Grace of Conserve Wildlife. "This year, we're telling people that not seeing bats in those roosts is just as important to note. We'll know then how significant the die-off is due to white-nose syndrome."

After mass die-offs of bats in 2006 and 2007 in New York, the phenomenon was named after a strange white fungus found on their snouts and wings. Since then, it has spread to nine states from Vermont to Virginia. Bats began dying in New Jersey in January and a pre-spring inspection of the state's largest hibernating spot, or hibernaculum, the Hibernia mine in Rockaway Township, revealed a 95 percent population drop.

The syndrome prompts bats to wake from hibernation in the dead of winter, even fly from their hibernaculum, and use up crucial fat reserves.

"The exact cause of mortality of affected bats is not yet fully understood, but the newly identified fungus is considered a likely contributor," Marvin Moriarty, northeast regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, told the natural resource committee yesterday.

The fungus invades the skin, underlying tissue and particularly the wings, which help to balance complex physiological processes such as body temperature. All six bat species that hibernate in the Northeast have been impacted and scientists fear the syndrome will spread to large bat populations in the South and Southwest -- and that some species may never recover even if a solution is found.

"Bats differ from most other small mammals in that they have long lives and reproduce slowly," Moriarty said.

Bats are insect-eaters and help human agriculture. The 1 million killed would have consumed 8,000 pounds of insects in a single summer night, scientists said.

"The level of nightly consumption by one little brown bat would be equivalent to a 150-pound teenage boy eating approximately 300 quarter-pounders. Translated to the number of insects that would not be eaten by one little brown bat in your backyard on a given night, it amounts to the equivalent of 60 medium-sized moths or over 1,000 mosquito-sized insects," said Thomas Kunz, director of the Center for Ecology and Conservation at Boston University.

Conserve Wildlife will assign a bat roost to volunteers who contact the foundation at (609) 984-0621 or e-mail Maria Grace at Conserve Wildlife.

Previous coverage

April 24 -- Caves closed at Delaware Water Gap after deadly bat fungus found

April 1 -- Bat-cave moratorium does not apply to tourist attractions

March 5, 2008 -- What's killing the bats next door?