July 2022

White-nose Syndrome (WNS) is a rapidly spreading disease causing high mortality rates in North American bats, with the disease confirmed in 39 states and eight Canadian provinces as of February 2022. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (the Service), in partnership with WMI, recently funded a small grant program in support of projects that focused on monitoring bat diversity and abundance and/or education and engagement of the public in conservation of bats.

On May 24, 2022, the World Wildlife Fund-Telmex Telcel Foundation Alliance (WWF) and the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas in Mexico (CONANP), released data from the winter 2021–22 monarch butterfly population counts. Monarchs occupied 2.84 hectares in December 2021, compared to 2.10 hectares at the same time in 2020. This represents a 35% increase. The average for the past decade, from the winter beginning in 2012 to the winter beginning in 2021, has been 2.62 hectares, and the population has been declining since formal measurements were initiated.

The USGS Wisconsin Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, the University of Wisconsin, the U.S. Forest Service, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, are working with management agencies across the central U.S. to help migratory grasslands birds adapt to a changing world.