{"id":16451,"date":"2017-01-19T01:03:03","date_gmt":"2017-01-19T01:03:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/?p=16451"},"modified":"2023-09-21T01:12:27","modified_gmt":"2023-09-21T01:12:27","slug":"jaaabani-needs-help-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/2017\/01\/19\/jaaabani-needs-help-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Jaa\u2019aban\u00ed needs help, now!"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY COLLEEN KEANE<\/strong>
\nSPECIAL TO THE TIMES<\/p>\n

ALBUQUERQUE<\/strong> \u2014 Jaa\u02bcaban\u00ed, bat, has always been a helper to the Din\u00e9 and all people of the earth.<\/p>\n

They are selfless beings, notes the \u201cLegends and Culture\u201d section on Twin Rocks Trading Post\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

\u201cBats were part of the council called upon to mediate after the war between the Dark Thunder People and the Winter Thunder group. As a representative of the \u201cgreat gods,\u201d bat, who occupied the humblest seat near the door, consented to go and (renew) peace to both Thunder groups,\u201d the description reads.<\/p>\n

Besides building bridges in the spirit world, Din\u00e9 cosmology attributes jaa\u02bcaban\u00ed with silently passing along answers to difficult questions when humans are put on the spot and quietly helping out the Holy People when they need backup.<\/p>\n

In everyday life, Jaa\u02bcaban\u00ed keeps the earth in balance by pollinating flowers and plants, and guards against invasive insects that destroy crops and farm lands.<\/p>\n

Now, jaa\u02bcaban\u00ed is in trouble and needs the help of humans to survive.<\/p>\n

While jaa\u02bcaban\u00ed has several predators, like cats, owls and hawks, a microscopic fungal spore has become the biggest threat of all.<\/p>\n

The spore, pseudogymnoascus destructans or Pd for short, sneaks up on jaa\u02bcaban\u00eds when they\u2019re hibernating in cold, dark places, like caves. Called White Nose Syndrome because the microscopic spores attach to the jaa\u02bcaban\u00eds\u2019 noses and ears, the fungus sucks the life out of the small mammals as they sleep hanging upside down.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile hibernating, bats have a certain amount of fat that lasts them until spring when the insects return and the temperature warns up,\u201d said biologist Justin Stevenson. \u201cIf (that gets used up) and they get dehydrated, they die.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stevenson was one of several wildlife specialists who presented information about the delicate nature of the bat ecosystem during last weekend\u2019s Bird and Bat Festival held at the Rio Grande Nature Center on the northwest side of the city.<\/p>\n

He said that since 2006, more than six million bats in the U.S. and Canada have died from Pd.<\/p>\n

Researchers first discovered the noxious spore on a routine count of the New England bat population.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey sadly saw dead bats in the snow, dead bats carpeting the cave,\u201d explained Stevenson.<\/p>\n

Pd was introduced into the United States by a European tourist who carried it into an east coast cave on his or her hiking boots.<\/p>\n

It quickly spread from one cave to another.<\/p>\n

According to one source, WNS has killed big brown bats, tri-colored bats, little brown bats, eastern small-footed bats, northern bats and Indiana myotis bats.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very tragic and incredibly devastating,\u201d said Stevenson.<\/p>\n

While Pd hasn\u2019t reached the southwest, Stevenson said there\u2019s concern that it will.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of biologists have hoped that the west would not have a problem because (the environment) is hot and dry. But, researchers from UNM and other (academic institutions) conducted extensive studies and found that under the right conditions, Pd could grow and populate,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

He added that unlike the bat cave systems back east, bats here in the Southwest live in varied environments that include caves, crevices, rock formations, deserted barns and other dwellings, which aren\u2019t as easy to monitor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have great ability to count our bats throughout the west,\u201d he noted. \u201cIf we can\u2019t see them, can\u2019t fi nd them, it\u2019s a big uphill battle to know if Pd is here and how it\u2019s effecting our bats.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stevenson along with his wife, Holly Smith, also a New Mexico wildlife biologist, founded Fight WNS, a non-profit organization that\u2019s funding research.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES | COLLEEN KEANE<\/p>\n

New Mexico wildlife biologist Justin Stevenson educates people on a fungus that\u2019s killing millions of bats when they hibernate.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY COLLEEN KEANE SPECIAL TO THE TIMES ALBUQUERQUE \u2014 Jaa\u02bcaban\u00ed, bat, has always been a helper to the Din\u00e9 and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16451"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16454,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16451\/revisions\/16454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}