Vt. asking people to watch for bats through summer - NEWS10 ABC: Albany, New York News, Weather, Sports

Vt. asking people to watch for bats through summer

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - The Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife is asking people across the state to help biologists learn about summer bat colonies in buildings through a program called "Got Bats?"

The spread of the white nose syndrome, the disease that has killed millions of bats in the United States and Canada, forced the state of Vermont to add the little brown bat and the northern long-earned bat to the state endangered species list.

Little brown bats prefer to raise their young in warm attics and barns.

The number of those bats in Vermont is believed to have declined up to 95 percent.

The reporting campaign is to have Vermonters report bat colonies living in buildings by filling out a form that can be found through department's home page.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

For more on the program, and to report if you have bats in your house, visit: http://www.vtfishandwildlife.com/wildlife_bats_gotbats.cfm