Maine officials are submitting a bill that would add two bat species that have been decimated by white nose syndrome to the state’s endangered species list.
The state Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife submitted the bill on Tuesday.
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It seeks to add the northern long-eared bat and little brown bat to the endangered list. Officials said in July that cave counts of the two species showed nearly 90 percent declines. A third species, the eastern small-footed bat, is being proposed for the state’s threatened species list.
The proposal is part of a bill that would add a few invertebrate species to the endangered list and change the statuses of some invertebrates and birds. Department spokesman Mark Latti says a public hearing on the bill could be four weeks away.
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