LINCOLN, Neb - A mammal that has fascinated mankind for years, and might be seen flying around your neighborhood, farm, or local park is now at risk.

The Southeast Nebraska bat population is being impacted by innovation in natural energy and diseases. Shaun Dunn, Zoologist for Nebraska Game and Parks shared more with NCN.

“Most of our bat populations are actually falling because of white nose syndrome,” Dunn said.

Dunn has been studying the bat population in Nebraska’s southeastern region for years, and as mentioned, the white nose syndrome has taken its toll. The disease was first discovered in the northeastern United States in 2006, before rapidly spreading from bat populations across the United States.

Once the disease sets in, it confuses bats during hibernation.

“The hibernaculum, like caves or mines, are perfect growth places for this fungus… It starts taking over their nose and wings, it wakes bats up during hibernation,” Dunn said. “They fly out, but there’s no food for them, so they freeze or they starve to death.”

An additional impact are wind turbines, which continue to be major debate in the southeastern region.

“The best data that we see, is that they’re not the best for bats,” Dunn said. “They definitely kill both bats and birds, but no energy source is 100% environmentally friendly.”

When it comes to combatting issues of turbines impacting bats, Dunn says it takes collaboration between groups like Game and Parks, with companies installing turbines.

“Most of the companies we work with are very good,” Dunn said. “They conduct surveys before they start construction and we ask them to do surveys after, so we can look at what species are there, if we’re getting the same abundance, but also, if we are getting kills, what we can do about that.”

One of the main ways Game and Parks conducts population surveys is by sound, using a little gray box, just bigger than a retro video game. This device is known as an EchoMaster, which collects sound from bat vocalizations. With time, Game and Parks is able to decipher which species is making which sound, based on the curved lines on the machine representing the bats sound, and nearby habitat.

“We will put those out for weeks at a time, we’ll take in the data from those, we’ll look at the data from those, put them on a computer and analyze,” Dunn said. “We can see what species are flying by and we get a lot of information on which bats are in that area.”

In order to help the bat population, Nebraskans can do their part. One way is by simply respecting habitat, but another, could be an addition to your backyard.

“Protect their natural environment, like forested areas like this, or caves and mines and try not to disturb those areas, but also putting up a bat box gives bats a place to live,” Dunn said.