Currently, the Eastern Small-footed Bat has a global rank of a g-3. This indicates that the Eastern Small-footed Bat is classified as vulnerable and is marked as a global problem. The Eastern Small-footed Bat has been considered a rare species in the past years and is now faced with a new problem. White-nose Syndrome, a newly emergent fungal disease, attacks the bats while they hibernate. Since 2006, when the disease was first discovered, nearly seven million bats of six different species have been killed. This disease has caused a twelve percent decline of the Eastern Small-footed Bat. These bats are not only suffering from White-nose Syndrome but also from mining, oil and gas drilling, hydrofracking, logging, highway construction, residential development, and other forms of development that take away from the bats’ natural habitat.
Fossil records show that bats date back fifty million years. It would be a shame for the Eastern Small-footed Bat to become extinct because of the lack of action being taken to protect them.