Why Canada must step up to save our bats
Published
2025-05-05Quietly underway on Canada’s west coast is a pioneering rescue mission for an oft-maligned group of mammals – bats.
WCS Canada has been working with colleagues in Washington and two Canadian universities (McMaster and Thompson Rivers) to develop and test a new probiotic approach designed to protect bats from white-nose syndrome (WNS), a deadly fungal disease that has wiped out millions of bats across the continent.
The science is sound. The urgency, unquestionable. And for a while, the financial support was there - until it wasn’t.
Political sands around the world are shifting faster and more drastically than ever before. The rapid pace of change has illuminated a major issue: Canada's vulnerability when vital research hinges on cross-border dollars.
Tiny mammals, big impact
Bats may not receive the conservation attention they deserve, but they should - they are ecological powerhouses. They devour insects by the thousands, including agricultural and forestry pests, helping farmers reduce pesticide use, and forest managers reduce the need for aerial pest control. They maintain the delicate balance of biodiversity. In short, when bats thrive, so do ecosystems and economies.
The innovative probiotic approach advanced by WCS Canada's Dr. Cori Lausen and partners at Thompson Rivers University (Dr. Cheeptham), McMaster University (Dr. Xu), and Washington State Fish and Wildlife (Abigal Tobin), represents years of groundwork: collecting samples and analyzing the microbiomes of healthy bats, and carefully testing treatments.
Preliminary results are increasingly promising, with testing at sites in Washinton State showing bats with higher levels of the probiotic having lower levels of the fungus that causes WNS.
Losing momentum now risks major scientific setbacks in our fight to halt the spread and reduce the impact of the disease.
Canada’s role in conservation science
While cross-border collaboration fosters innovation and allows us to tackle shared environmental challenges, when international funding priorities shift, Canadian progress can grind to a halt.
This represents a moment for introspection. If we value healthy forests, resilient ecosystems, and food security, we must also value the species that enable this. That means investing in homegrown science and ensuring that groundbreaking work like the bat probiotic project doesn’t collapse due to funding gaps.
This project represents Canadian innovation at its finest. A small Canadian collaboration of researchers could provide a North American conservation breakthrough. But time is running out. The next two years are critical to prove the probiotic’s effectiveness. Without reliable backing, we risk losing not only this project, but the species it’s trying to save.
We need financial support to carry this across the finish line. Your donation today will help keep this vital research going. You’ll be directly and immediately supporting fieldwork, data collection, and community-led conservation efforts across the Pacific Northwest – bats know no boundaries. And ultimately the treatment will have wide-reaching benefits -- protecting species key to our own future health and prosperity.
This is a moment for Canada to lead. Let’s not let it slip away.
