Bats here are still healthy, but plagues spread. I hope they can get a grip on this one.:
Across the Northeast, something is wiping out hundreds of thousands of bats. Biologists, shaken by the destruction, bring back harrowing accounts from caves where they had long studied thriving populations.
...As best anyone can tell, the bat deaths started slowly. They spread quietly from the suspected epicenter of Howe's Cave, west of Albany, N.Y. By January 2008, reports began to trouble government and research biologists. In New York and Vermont, something unusual was driving bats out of hibernation before their normal time. They would collapse on the snow, emaciated, and die. A pale, whitish fungus grew on their bodies. Genetic tests are still ongoing, but the fungus appears identical to one found in Europe. There, it was seen growing harmlessly on some hibernating bats as long ago as the 1980s. Some speculate that those bats have evolved to tolerate it. Others suggest the fungus in America has mutated into some more virulent form.
The first time DeeAnn Reeder saw a faint powdering of pale fungus growing on bats' noses in one of her own research caves, her stomach plunged. It felt as if she were going to throw up. Then it got worse.
"You would look at bats on the cave wall and know they were going to die," Reeder said, "Just pathetic looking, horrible looking animals." Fungus grew all across their faces. They were so thin and dehydrated that they seemed almost crispy. Some clung to the wall by only one foot.
...So far, white nose syndrome has rampaged through six bat species, striking the little brown bat and the tri-colored bat especially hard. Researchers tracking the syndrome believe it could drive some endangered species into extinction and slash the populations of others. It could also drastically change the patterns of which bat species can thrive in colder climates. Migrating bats are likely to survive, but hibernating species could take decades to rebound, if they ever do, because they breed slowly, often producing just one pup a year.
...Meanwhile, researchers are pleading with people to stay out of caves and mines that might be infected. Geomyces destructans can survive at least a week at warm temperatures, long enough to hitch a ride on muddy shoes or caving gear, through an airport and to another cave thousands of miles away. The word has mostly gotten out to biologists and serious cave enthusiasts, who can follow frequently updated online advice about the best precautionary measures. Tougher to reach are the amateur hobbyists, the casual church or scouting groups that might visit an infected cave and never know what they have done.
If white nose syndrome spreads only bat to bat, it's difficult to say if or when it would cross the Rockies. Before diseased bats could reach the mountain range, the infection might be stopped or slowed in regions with fewer caves and lower bat population densities. One of the leading theories about white nose syndrome, though, is that this fungus has already crossed the Atlantic with human help. To spread the syndrome to the West, Reeder says, "All it will take is one careless caver to take their caving gear into California or into Colorado."
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