Welcome back, citizen!

This week, Fungi Town has gone batty! These often misunderstood but very beneficial creatures are one of the most fascinating things in nature. We’ve got 47 species in North America. One of America’s native bats is the Pallid bat, that feeds on the “deathstalker” scorpion, the sting of which is said to be able to kill an adult human.  Did you know that Austin, TX is home to the largest urban bat colony in the world? Those bats can eat tons of insects per night! But North America’s bats represent only 3% of the worlds bat species.  I could go on and on about all of the great things about bats, but I’ve brought in two great guests this episode to share their love for bats.Karen Vanderwolf of the University of Wisconsin and Melissa Ingala from the American Museum of Natural History will help us learn about the biggest threat to our bats: White Nose Syndrome.

For a WNS distribution map, go here.

What do you do if you’ve found a bat? Generally, you shouldn’t disturb it, but if you think it may be injured or in danger, here are a few links where you can learn how to safely help the bat and who you can contact for help.

Bat World Sanctuary, Inc. – in the U.S.
Essex Bat Group– in the U.K.

If you’d like to help bats in general, consider donating or volunteering to one of these organizations:

Bat Conservation International
Lubee Bat Conservancy

If you’re a member of the caving community, here are some resources that cover how to help protect bats while you’re caving:

Bat Caver
White-Nose Syndrome.org

Fungi Town is written, directed and produced by Jen Parrilli and hosted on Podbean. The new theme music is by the awesome Athens, GA band Shehehe. Defunked theme music is Fminor_Funk_BassGroove_100bpm by GRD-music, bat sounds are by klankschap, insect sounds are by heatfuse used via Creative Commons license through Freesound. Photo is by guest Karen Vanderwolf and has been cropped and resized.

You can find Fungi Town on Facebook. Twitter, and Instagram: @fungitownpod or email at fungitownpod[at]gmail[dot]com.