‘White Nose Syndrome’ threatens America’s bats - January 31, 2008
Bats in the United States are dying from a mysterious disease at such a rate that they face extinction.
“What we’ve seen so far is unprecedented. Most bat researchers would agree that this is the gravest threat to bats they have ever seen,” says Alan Hicks, leader of a New York Department of Environmental Conservation investigation into the problem (press release).
In some caves more than 90% of resident bats have succumbed to ‘white nose syndrome’, named after the fungus that covers the noses of some victims. Bats suffering from the problem seem to have run through their fat reserves months before they should be emerging from hibernation, says the DEC.
Perhaps the most worrying aspect of this is that the syndrome has now reached the abandoned mine where half of New York’s endangered Indiana bats hibernate. “There are an awful lot of bat people, even a month ago before we had half of this bad news, all saying the same thing. We’ve never seen anything like it, and we’re all scared,” Hicks told Bloomberg.
Some are already drawing parallels with the colony collapse disorder that is devastating US bees.
There’s a great piece on this in Schenectady’s Daily Gazette.
Image: DEC
Comments
Dear colleagues,
I am Dr Matti Masing from Estonia. In the late 1970s I discovered a similar disease in bats hibernating in limestone tunnels near Tallinn, NW Estonia, NE Europe. This observation is published in my book Lendlased 1984, p 81 (in Estonian). In our case the disease (probable fungus), which I called „notch disease“, attacked the ears of bats. It was mostly found in Daubenton's Bats (DB) who spend lot of time in very humid environment. Much less was it observed in other Myotis species. It was never found in young bats, but up to 27% of adult Daubenton's Bats hibernating in some tunnels were affected by the disease. First the tops of ears became whitish and soft, later the white tissue disappeared but „eaten“ parts of ears were visible as deep notches, sometimes half of the ear of even more was missing. I have a photo of one bat who had deep notches in both ears. Probably this disease did not kill bats, as there was no population decline. Bats with notched ears were frequent and they seemed to live long. But this disease mainly occurred in the tunnels near Tallinn where up to 27% of adult DB were affected. Only 3.8% were affected in western Estonia and 0.4% in southeastern Estonia (Masing 1984).
Matti Masing
Posted by: Matti Masing | February 1, 2008 03:54 PM
What exactly do bats do? How do they figure in the nature system?
Posted by: Ju1011 | April 1, 2008 04:46 PM
Bats are a major part of our ego-system. They are the best mosquito catcher's that we have. They are out during the night when the mosquitoes are.
I believe that the scientists should look to the ground for the answer that they are seeking. when soil loses it micr-life forms the soil becomes dead soil. Dead soil mixed with the dampness that are in caves will produce mold and fungus. As with the human toenail fungus the fungus will find a host to feed off of.
Posted by: Sheila Brandon | April 1, 2008 08:50 PM