DULUTH, Minn. — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday said the northern long-eared bat, a species once common in the forests of Minnesota and Wisconsin, now faces extinction and needs to be protected as an endangered species.
The federal action, if finalized, would reclassify the small bat from "threatened" to "endangered" status under the federal Endangered Species Act.
Long-eared bats, like many other bat species, have been devastated by a fungus called white-nose syndrome. The fungus, native to Europe, causes the bats to overheat and they eventually die. It spreads among bats when they group up in winter in caves or abandoned mines, such as in the Soudan Underground Mine on the Iron Range and Mystery Cave in southern Minnesota, where thousands of bats have died in recent winters.
