Solar powered boxes might save sick bats

While scientists aren’t yet sure what’s causing “white-nose syndrome,” a malady that’s sickened and killed large populations of bats in the northeastern US and Canada, some researchers believe the cure could lie with solar-powered bat boxes that offer the animals warm shelter.

A National Geographic News article this week profiles Indiana State University researcher Justin Boyles who, with his colleagues, developed a computer model indicating the bats might be dying because they’re waking more frequently during winter hibernation. Waking causes body temperature to rise, which consumes energy … which means the bats might be starving to death.

Armed with that hypothesis, Boyles and Craig Willis of the University of Winnipeg set out to build a bat box shelter that provides heat courtesy of solar-cell-powered car batteries. They soon expect to begin testing the shelters with a small bat colony in Canada.