National Parks Traveler Podcast · Kurt Repanshek

National Parks Traveler Podcast | Bats in the Parks

·40 min·2 clips

White-nose syndrome has killed upwards of 99 percent of some bat populations.

1. National Parks Traveler centers this episode on bats in the national parks and the threat of white-nose syndrome. 2. Host Kurt Repencheck speaks with contributing editor Kim O'Connell, who is reporting for the Traveler's Threatened to Endangered Species Project and cares enough about bats to call herself a "bat aficionado." 3. The episode asks what bats are doing in parks, why they matter, and what white-nose syndrome is doing to them. 4. Kim describes seeing bats over Lewis Lake and the Lewis River channel in Yellowstone, where they came out at sunset to feed on insects over the water. 5. She also recalls bats hanging inside the Pawpaw Tunnel on the C&O Canal National Historical Park, where a flashlight beam revealed them on the tunnel roof. 6. Kurt and Kim name Carlsbad Caverns National Park as a place where visitors watch bats emerge at night, and Kim says some parks schedule bat-related public events. 7. Kim says Mammoth Cave National Park has 13 species of bats, and she notes that bats also live above ground in park forests and in hollow trees. 8. She says many bats are tiny, sometimes only an inch or two long, and that a bat conservationist recently showed her bats small enough to fit in a palm. 9. Kim identifies white-nose syndrome as the main threat, describing it as a fatal fungal disease that spreads quickly through colonies packed closely together. 10. She names the Indiana bat, tricolored bat, and northern long-eared bat as park-relevant species that are in trouble. 11. Kim says national parks may be one of the best places to hold on to remaining bat populations because bats elsewhere face habitat loss and pollution too. 12. She discusses Leslie Sturgis, a private bat rehabilitator and conservationist based in the Shenandoah Valley who treats bats found in backyards and through animal control. 13. Sturgis tells Kim about a colony in northern Virginia, near McLean, that was decimated when white-nose syndrome moved through a park roost she had been monitoring. 14. Kim explains that Sturgis rehabilitates injured bats in an interior space and then moves them to an outdoor enclosure so they can relearn how to fly before release. 15. The conversation returns to the scale of the disease, with Kim saying some bat colonies have lost 90% to 100% of their members. 16. Kim says Sturgis sees some signs of adaptation, including colonies shifting locations, while researchers continue testing ways to interrupt the disease. 17. The interview keeps a conversational, exploratory rhythm, with Kurt asking follow-up questions from Yellowstone, Mammoth Cave, Wind Cave, and Luray Caverns. 18. Kim responds with field notes, cave examples, and personal sightings, while Kurt repeatedly connects the bat story to broader park conservation work. 19. Listeners who like cave wildlife, park science, or species conservation should get a lot from this episode. 20. Listeners looking for a tight travel guide or a big-animal park story may skip it.

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