White-Nose Syndrome: Something is killing our bats
In February 2006 some 40 miles west of Albany, N.Y., a caver photographed hibernating bats with an unusual white substance on their muzzles. He noticed several dead bats. The following winter, bats behaving erratically, bats with white noses, and a few hundred dead bats in several caves came to the attention of New York Department of Environmental Conservation biologists, who documented white-nose syndrome in January 2007. Hundreds of thousands of hibernating bats have died since. Biologists with state and federal agencies and organizations across the country are still trying to find the answer to this deadly mystery.
We have found sick, dying and dead bats in unprecedented numbers in and around caves and mines from Vermont to Virginia. In some hibernacula, 90 to 100 percent of the bats are dying.
While they are in the hibernacula, affected bats often have white fungus on their muzzles and other parts of their bodies. They may have low body fat. These bats often move to cold parts of the hibernacula, fly during the day and during cold winter weather when the insects they feed upon are not available, and exhibit other uncharacteristic behavior.
Despite the continuing search to find the source of this condition by numerous laboratories and state and federal biologists, the cause of the bat deaths remains unknown. Recent identification of a cold-loving fungus could be a step toward an answer.
Check out the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s White-Nose Syndrome page!
Why can’t we start a net in feeding program. By placing netting just at the apex of the cave where the bats are able to safely be and place food there for them to feed on until spring. Wile we are looking for a better alternative to this problem.
Hi Cory,
Thanks for your comment (and your email). As I responded in an email, scientists are still working to determine how the fungal infection associated with WNS kills bats. It may be more complicated than the bats’ needing to eat to make it through the winter.
Researchers are working on ways to sustain bat populations in captivity and in controlled environments (like netting in), and we remain hopeful that research will reveal a way to combat the fungus and protect bats from white-nose syndrome.
Thanks again for your ideas and concern for bats with WNS,
Ann Froschauer
National WNS Communications Leader
Would it be possible to reduce or eliminate the fungus by using ultraviolet light? I understand that ultraviolet light is used to kill mold, bacteria and fungus. I know that it is used to treat water in koi ponds. I am not a scientist, but I thought that I would pass on the suggestion. I don’t know if ultraviolet lights could be set up in caves, maybe during the nights in the summer, when bats are outside to kill or reduce the fungus. Clearly there are numerous factors to consider, such as whether it is practical to set up ultraviolet lights in caves, and if it could be done, the impact on the cave ecosystem, but at least the light would not have a long term toxic impact. I don’t know whether bats are sensitive to ultraviolet light, or it would interfere with their hybernation, if it were used during the winter months.
[...] (NaturalNews) The US Fish and Wildlife Service published a plan in May of 2011 to prevent the spread of white-nose syndrome (WNS) in bats. The fast-spreading disease has killed more than one million bats in the US and Canada since it detection in 2006. The new plan is meant to coordinate multiple governmental and research groups in a "swift national effort to avoid irreversible losses to bat populations".WNS derives its name from the whitish fungus which typically appears on the nose and/or wings of infected bats. However, not all infected bats display these visual symptoms. The disease causes bats to engage in atypical behaviors such as flying during periods when their prey is unavailable, such as sub-zero temperatures in daylight hours. Infected bats will also cluster around the entrances to their hibernacula (caves and other dark places in which they can safely spend the winter months). Once the disease attacks a colony of bats, it spreads quickly and typically wipes out 90% of those sharing a hibernation dwelling.The highly respected journal Science published a study in August of 2010 in which researched predicted that WNS would result in local extinction of some bat species within two decades. Since bats play a vital role in ecosystems, both as pollinators and through their consumption of insects harmful to crops, this could have a devastating effect on the economy. The April 2011 issue of Science included an article reporting on another study looking at the financial impact of potential bat extinction. Researchers estimated that the loss of bat populations could cost the US agriculture system more than $3.7 billion per year.Some scientists predict the bat die-off may require more extensive use of pesticides to compensate for fact that insects destructive to crops will no longer be subject to predation by the night-flying mammals. This is ironic because many environmental experts point to pesticides, along with GMO crops, as a possible culprit contributing to the epidemic threatening the continuation of the bat species. At the same time that one arm of the federal government, US Fish and Wildlife Management, works to contain the disease, other branches continue to rubberstamp their approval of an increasing number of pesticides and genetically modified Frankenfoods whose safety has not been verified.Bats are one of the species serving as canaries in the coal mine of the toxic chemical stew in our environment. Their unique combination of long lifespan (up to three decades) and small size (a little brown bat weighs about 8 grams) makes them especially vulnerable. Boston University bat researcher and PhD candidate Marianne Moore notes, "That's a lot of time to accumulate pesticides and contaminants. We know they are exposed to and accumulate organochlorines, mercury, arsenic, lead, dioxins but we don't understand the effects." Independent research, free of corporate influence, is needed to investigate the link between WNS and pesticides.Sources for this article include:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-e…http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/…http://e360.yale.edu/feature/behind…http://whitenosebats.wordpress.com/… [...]