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Friday, March 29, 2024

Cold weather may harm Florida's reptile, bat populations

This month’s cold snap left its mark on reptiles and bats all across Florida and worried animal experts.

Cindi Marks, co-founder and executive director of the Florida Bat Conservancy, said some species of bats abundant in Florida may not be able to withstand the effects of the winter cold.

Jonathan Miot, assistant professor at the Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo, said iguanas, like other reptiles, are suffering from cold shock.

“Due to the extraordinary cold weather in Florida, the heat these animals are absorbing is not enough to sustain normal metabolism,” Miot said.

The slowing metabolism rate causes reptiles to freeze. Although it is possible for these animals to rebound from the cold shock, sustained cold could cause them to freeze to death, Miot said.

During extreme cold weather, the SFC Teaching Zoo takes its animals indoors or provides supplemental heat sources and bedding. However, animals in the wild aren’t so lucky.

Bats essentially shut down during torpor, a phase similar to hibernation, beginning with temperatures in the low 50s, Marks said, and waking up from torpor to find food consumes a lot of energy.

“There are no insects during the cold weather, so the bats are staying in torpor longer,” Marks said.

On campus, the Brazilian free-tailed bat is most at risk because it is a species native to more tropical climates and not used to going into torpor for so long. The other types of bats that live in the UF bat house are native to the north.

“We really aren’t totally sure how it will affect these species,” Marks said.

Florida bats go into torpor for a couple of weeks at a time, depending on the temperature. The highest low in January was 55, and the forecast for the rest of January does not show the lows rising above 60, according to AccuWeather.com.

Including data from December 2009, which did not show lows rising above 51 beginning Dec. 18, it is possible the bats will face almost six consecutive weeks of torpor-causing weather.

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The bats in the UF bat house are doing fine for now, said Ken Glover, pest management coordinator for UF.

“In previous times, I’ve had some bats that would fall out,” he said. He would find them frozen on the ground near the bat house.

UF sophomore Colleen Thomas  said she wants the warm weather to return soon for her as well as the animals’ sake.

“If I ever walked by the bat house and saw a frozen bat on the ground, I would scream,” she said.

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