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Bats are subject to all the problems of habitat loss and human encroachment that plague other species, along with some peculiar to them.
栖息地流失和人类入侵不仅冲击了其他物种，蝙蝠也面临同样的问题，而且它们还有一些特有的问题。
White-nose disease has killed vast numbers of North American bats. Overharvesting of agave plants threatens nectar-feeding bats.
白鼻症已导致大量北美洲蝙蝠死亡。龙舌兰属植物过量收割也危及吸蜜性蝙蝠。
And there is climate change. Some of the most at risk from a warming planet are large fruit bats, like those in Australia.
气候变化同样是一大问题。因地球暖化而面临最大风险的蝙蝠包括大型狐蝠，例如澳洲的狐蝠。
They don't roost in caves but in the open, and extreme heat can kill them.
它们不是栖息在洞穴里，而是在露天环境中，因此极端高温可能使它们死亡。
Mass die-offs have pushed some species that were doing well only 10 or 15 years ago to endangered status.
有些蝙蝠在仅仅10到15年前还能好好生存，但后来大量死亡，如今已进入濒危状态。
For defenders of bats, the first priority is to have good information on the populations themselves.
对蝙蝠保卫人士而言，首要任务是充分掌握关于族群本身的资讯。
Paul Webala, wildlife biologist at Maasai Mara University and a National Geographic Explorer, is building an acoustic library of the calls of Kenyan bats that he said could be a game changer in knowing the status, movements, and locations of different species.
马赛马拉大学野生生物学家兼国家地理探险家保罗·卫巴拉正在建立肯尼亚蝙蝠叫声的声学资料库，他说这有望大幅改变目前情势，有助于了解不同蝙蝠物种的状态、活动及位置。
Bat Conservation International supports multiple efforts to monitor threatened species, but it is also working on projects of immediate benefit, such as reducing bat deaths from wind turbines.
国际蝙蝠保育组织支持多项受威胁物种的监测计划，但这个组织也正在推行具有立即效益的计划，例如减少死于风力机的蝙蝠数量。
In the U.S., hundreds of thousands of bats die each year from wind turbines, said Rodrigo Medellín, a senior professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico's Institute of Ecology.
墨西哥国立自治大学生态学研究所的资深教授罗德里戈·美德因表示，美国每年有数十万只蝙蝠死于风力机。
A National Geographic Explorer at Large, Medellín co-chairs the Bat Specialist Group, part of the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Species Survival Commission, with Kingston.
美德因也是国家地理无驻所探险家，与金斯顿一起担任蝙蝠专家小组的共同主席，这个小组隶属国际自然保护联盟的物种生存委员会。
Over 60 percent of those deaths could be avoided, he said, if the industry would agree to start up the turbines at a wind speed of five or six meters a second instead of three meters a second, resulting in a "tiny loss of efficiency."
美德因说，如果业界同意在风速为每秒5到6米的风速时才启动发电机，而不是每秒3米时就启动，就能避免超过60%的蝙蝠死亡事件，代价只是“轻微损失发电效率”。
Protecting roosts is also a top priority for Medellín.
保护蝙蝠栖地也是美德因的优先要务。
He recently lobbied to divert the path of the Maya Train, a $20 billion tourism project in the Yucatán, away from the famed Volcán de los Murciélagos.
他最近强力倡导将耗资200亿美元的尤卡坦州旅游项目“马雅列车”变更路线，远离著名的坎佩切卡拉克穆尔蝙蝠火山。
The "bats volcano" is the most populous roost from central Mexico to southern Argentina. About three million bats emerge from it each night to feed on insects.
这座“蝙蝠火山”从墨西哥中部到阿根廷南部，是蝙蝠数量最稠密的栖息地。每晚大约会涌出300万只蝙蝠捕食昆虫。
It is just not fair, said Medellín, that such useful animals should have such a bad reputation.
美德因说，这么有益的动物名声居然如此糟糕，实在不公平。
"We really owe it to bats to treat them right. And what do they ask?" he said. "Just leave them alone. That's all."
“我们真的应该好好对待蝙蝠。它们要的是什么？”他说，“就只是不要受到千扰。”
In terms of convincing the public of the value of bats, scientists often mention their role in pollinating wild plants and crops and in eating insects, natural pest control worth billions of dollars a year in the U.S.
至于要如何让大众相信蝙蝠的价值，科学家经常提到蝙蝠会为野生植物和作物传粉，也会吃掉昆虫，发挥自然害虫防治的作用，一年可为美国省下几十亿美元。
But what about bats as bats, pure and simple? Kingston, who switched her focus from rodents to bats as an undergrad, is wary of placing too much emphasis on the practical value of wildlife.
但是关于蝙蝠本身呢？金斯顿在大学期间将研究重点从啮齿动物转向蝙蝠，她对过度强调野生动物的实用价值持谨慎态度。
"What if there's a species that we can't pinpoint exactly what it's doing for the ecosystem?" she asked.
她问道：“要是我们无法确定某种生物对生态采的作用呢？”
Are we going to leave it off the list? It is not a hypothetical question.
我们要把这种生物从保护名单上除名吗？这并不是假设性问题。
So much about bats remains unknown. As much as we are learning about them, they are in some ways still undiscovered.
我们对蝙蝠还有许多不了解的地方。尽管我们对它们的了解越来越多，但仍有尚未发现的部分。
And their mystery is as compelling as their usefulness.
它们的谜团就跟它们的益处一样吸引人。
After 30 years, Swartz said, she still is moved when she steps into a space with the creatures and feels "the rustle of those wings and that breath of air as the animal is going by."
史沃兹说，尽管已经过了30年，但她踏进蝙蝠栖息的空间，感受到“翅膀的窸窣声，以及蝙蝠飞过时拂动的微风”时，依然十分感动。
One reason: "There are more unanswered questions than things that I understand."
这是因为：“尚未解答的问题比我已经了解的事情还多。”
