During Halloween, bats get their moment in the spotlight! But these nocturnal neighbors are more than just spooky symbols — they play an important role in keeping local ecosystems healthy. A single colony of big brown bats, for example, can eat millions of insects a year, acting as natural pest control.
"A lot of people cast them aside, think of them as vermin, carrying disease..." said Ashley Meyer, a bat biologist with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. "But I love being able to learn all these amazing things about bats and share them with the public — help folks understand that they're actually amazing creatures!"
Bats are the world's only flying mammals, and there are over 1,400 species, making them the second-largest group of mammals in the world behind rodents.
Nine of those call New York home, six of which are found on Long Island.
Casey Pendergast, also a bat biologist with the DEC, studies them in Nassau and Suffolk Counties. She said the northern long-eared bat is most of concern because of white-nose syndrome.
“It came over from Europe, and it’s this fungus that grows on the bat's wings and muzzles during hibernation," Pendergast said. "So it suppressed their immune response. So very high mortality rates with long-eared bats in particular.”
The state has seen a massive decline in these bats, but Long Island has its highest remaining density.
Pendergast said Long Island is a great environment for bats in general compared to the rest of New York State.
“We’re generally cooler, we don’t get as hot in the summer, or as cold in the winter -- we stay in a much smaller range. And we actually have a long season for insect activity…So there’s food available to these bats throughout the wintertime.”
Aside from white-nose syndrome, bats face other threats, too, such as habitat loss and wind development.
"A lot of bats seem to be attracted to, for some reason, the wind turbines," Meyer said. "We do find a lot of carcasses below active turbines, mostly impacting our hibernating bats. So that's something we have been keeping an eye out for."
If you find a bat in your home, DEC recommends contacting a wildlife professional. Do not handle the bat yourself, as it can carry rabies.
