The tricolored bat will be the second species of U.S. bat to be listed
as endangered this year as a fungal disease decimates their populations,
federal officials announced plans to do so on Tuesday. As the northern long-eared bat neared extinction
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service suggested reclassifying it from threatened to endangered in March
Twelve North American bat species, including the northern long-eared and the tricolored,
are affected by white-nose syndrome, which interferes with their essential winter hibernation.
At previously unheard-of rates, White-nose Syndrome is destroying hibernating bat species like the tricolored bat
says agency director Martha Williams. "A healthy ecology is made possible in large part by