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2009 edition. These accounts have been selected to provide the best available overall portrait of an evolving situation. Please note that some information may be dated and that media accounts rarely provide full, or always accurate, technical information.

Follow links to originating sites for full articles.

Funds approved to manage bat disease

By TOM MITCHELL Staff Writer - Published: November 15, 2009
Times Argus of Vermont

The $1.9 million approved recently in Congress to manage a mystery disease that's killed high numbers of bats in Vermont and New York likely will be spent to implement priorities of a national plan being written to help find a solution to white-nose syndrome as it continues to spread.

The emergency money, contained in the 2010 Interior and Environment Appropriations bill, was approved in conference committee recently and is expected to be awarded to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

"It is going to be up to (the service) to decide on spending," said Jeremy Coleman, national white nose coordinator for the service, at his office Thursday in Cortland, N.Y.

Funding obtained by Sen. Patrick Leahy D-Vt., in an amendment doubled the $500,000 previously earmarked to monitor the problem, officials said. "My concern is for when we can expect the money, because that might affect the priorities for how we may use it," Coleman said.

"We are still struggling on many levels," he said, noting efforts to study bat population impacts over huge areas of the country.

Once officials have a timeline for receiving the money, they will fine tuning where it will best be spent, Coleman said. "The (overall) game plan could change quickly as it has done all along," as the disease progresses, he said.

The money is critical for studying what the disease is and how to stop it, according to Mylea Bayless, a conservation biologist for Bat Conservation International, a nonprofit group based in Austin, Texas. The group works to protect bats and educate people about their ecological importance. "We can't do much without having these research questions answered," Bayless said.

"We are excited about the $1.9 million, (but) we are concerned the need is going to be far greater," Bayless said. As white-nose moves to other states, the cost of managing it is expected to be far greater than the money allocated. (Continued -- to read the full article, click the headline above.)

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What's killing the bats?
At least 1 million have died in the past three years from a mysterious disease, posing serious questions for our environment. But one Boston University biologist is leading the hunt for answers.

By Stacey Chase
November 15, 2009

Thomas Kunz emerges from Aeolus cave in East Dorset, Vermont, with a half-dozen metal ID bands -- smaller than SpaghettiOs -- cupped in the palm of his latex-gloved hand. Theyre tiny emblems of death, having once been affixed to the forearms of little brown bats.

The renowned bat biologist from Boston University, who bears a passing resemblance to Harrison Ford, minutes earlier had recovered the bands while trudging, like a real-life Indiana Jones, through a slippery mud-like ooze of rotting bat carcasses, liquefied internal organs, toothpick-sized bones, piles of guano, and a strange white fungus on the cave floor.

If bats had come out of hell, it couldn't have been worse than this.

"What we saw was bat soup. There were a lot of bones of wings and skulls and emulsified bodies, Kunz says. There were dead bats -- decomposing bats -- hanging from the walls of the cave.

"My heart sunk," he says, noting some of the bands bore his initials, THK. "It was as if I had lost family members."

It's late August, when bats are in their swarming phase, and the 71-year-old Kunz and two fellow biologists have trekked, at night, in hard rain, with heavy gear, 2,520 feet up the rugged Taconic Mountains to Aeolus -- the largest bat hibernaculum in the Northeast -- to bleed live bats and collect samples for researchers leading the hunt for clues into the cause of mysterious bat deaths like these.

At least 1 million bats in the past three years have been wiped out by a puzzling, widespread disease dubbed "white-nose syndrome" in what preeminent US scientists are calling the most precipitous decline of North American wildlife in human history. If it isn't slowed or stopped, they believe bats will continue disappearing from the landscape in huge numbers and that entire species could become extinct within a decade. It's enough to make some wonder: Is the bat in the cave the new canary in the coal mine?

We're at the vanguard of an environmental catastrophe, says Tim King, a conservation geneticist with the US Geological Survey in West Virginia. There's very little definitive information available at this point. Everybody's just scrambling, with very limited resources, to do whatever they can to help -- help stop this. (Continued -- to read the full article, click the headline above.)

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UCF bat seminar: The flying mammals are in deep trouble

November 14, 2009
Bats could be the new canary in the coal mine when it comes to the environmental crisis.

According to biologist John P. Hayes in a seminar hosted by the UCF biology department last week, America's bats are falling out of the sky and off the ceilings of caves by the thousands.

Hayes' presentation, "Conservation of Bats in the 21st Century: A Harbinger of Broad Scale Environmental Crisis?" shed light on how wind farms and a mysterious white fungus could trigger the extinction of some of North America's most vital bat species. Hayes, chairman of the Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation at the University of Florida, is co-editor of "Bats in Forests,'' a 2007 anthology on bat ecology and conservation.

Many species of bats eat the moths and beetles that eat crops. Without bats to keep the insects in check, the ecosystem as well as food production could suffer.

While the furry flying mammals can give some humans the creeps, Hayes said that what's happening to bats is "scary stuff." Hayes just completed a four-year study of the threats to bats in the Appalachian region, specifically how to keep wind power as a viable energy source without the turbines swatting bats out of the air.

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Lautenberg Secures $1.9 Million In Funding To Protect Bats From Deadly White Nose Syndrome

Contact: Lautenberg Press Office (202) 224-3224
Thursday, October 29, 2009

WASHINGTON, DC Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) today announced that funding to protect bat populations in New Jersey and throughout the region has been increased from $500,000 to $1.9 million in the final version of the FY 2010 Interior and Environment Appropriations bill. As a member of the Appropriations Committee, Lautenberg successfully fought to increase the funding for research into a mysterious and deadly illness called White Nose Syndrome (WNS) that is destroying bat populations in New Jersey and the Northeast Region. The legislation will now head to the White House where it is expected to be signed into law.

This dramatic increase in funding will provide scientists and wildlife experts with the resources they need to research and prevent the steep decline of New Jerseys bat population, stated Lautenberg. Bats play a vital role in our ecosystem by preying on insects that destroy crops and carry disease. There is an urgent need to fund WNS research so that bat populations in New Jersey and throughout the region are not further threatened by this illness. This funding is a smart investment in critical research and an encouraging commitment from Congress in our fight against WNS.

Bats reintroduced into Vermont caves hit by fungus

By MICHAEL HILL (AP) Oct. 27, 2009

ALBANY, N.Y. Wildlife biologists studying a mysterious fungus killing off hundreds of thousands of bats around America want to find out if they can repopulate caves decimated by the disease.

Researchers will introduce 79 healthy little brown bats to two hibernation sites in Vermont hit hard by the fungus, which may have killed as many as 500,000 bats in the eastern United States over several winters.

Scientists suspect a fungus that thrives in cold, moist caves causes white-nose syndrome, named for the sugary smudges of fungus on the noses and wings of hibernating bats.

The repopulation experiment starting Tuesday at caves in Bridgewater and Stockbridge, Vt., is not aimed at curing the disease. But it could show whether affected caves can sustain new populations of hibernating bats.

"Can you have bats successfully survive there? Or will they develop the disease even if there aren't any infected bats there?" asked Al Hicks, a wildlife biologist for New York's Department of Environmental Conservation.

Hicks said that if the bats shipped in from Wisconsin survive the winter, that could provide evidence that bats can be successfully reintroduced to caves that housed infected animals. It also could show whether the disease persists at hibernation sites even after infected bats are gone.

Entrances at the two sites are screened to keep in the bats. Gates will keep out people.

First noted in upstate New York in 2006, the disease has spread around the Northeast and has been detected as far south as Virginia. Researchers worry about a mass die-off of bats, which help control the populations of insects that can damage wheat, apples and dozens of other crops.

The repopulation project is a cooperative effort among conservation officials from Vermont, New York and the federal government.

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USFWS announces grant to to capture healthy bats threatened by deadly fungus

By Dan McDermott
Warren County Report

Front Royal, VAOct. 26, 2009The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service announced today a $322,000 grant to the Smithsonian Institutes National Zoo to fund the creation of a permanent secure colony of endangered Virginia big-eared bats at the zoos Front Royal, VA-based Conservation and Research Center.

The goal is to establish a healthy population of the bats while scientists work to stop a deadly fungus that threatens the entire species.

According to the USFWS, White-Nose syndrome was first documented near Albany, NY in Feb. 2006 when a caver photographed hibernating bats behaving erratically, many with a strange white substance on their muzzles. Some of the bats had died.

Dr. Jeremy Coleman, endangered species biologist and the USFWS National White-Nose Syndrome Coordinator, said that while it is common for mammals to develop fungal infections, it is very unusual for them to be fatal to a species. Coleman said that some bat species can live for up to 20 years in the wild and reproduce slowly so diseases can have a devastating effect on an already threatened species.

Indirect mortality

CRC staff veterinarian Luis Padilla said that scientists are still trying to determine if the fungus is indeed the pathogen that is causing the deaths of colonies of bats from New England to Virginia and West Virginia. The fungus leads to their deaths indirectly. The problem is that the fungus irritates them and they are more active during times of normal hibernation. Since it is the winter, there are not the usual food sources available to them and they actually die of starvation, he said. Padilla said that bats who survive the winter often awake in the spring with wings that have been partially eaten away by the fungus, effecting their flight and further impacting their chances of survival.

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White-nose syndrome haunts bats
The mysterious disease is obliterating U.S. bats as it spreads along the East Coast, and scientists say this could be a make-or-break winter for figuring out how to save them.
By Russell McLendon
Tue, Oct 27 2009

Bats are flying ambassadors of Halloween, adding spooky ambience to countless forests, graveyards and haunted houses. Lately, however, the tables have turned Halloween and the winter it foreshadows are an increasingly scary time to be a bat in America.

That's because a deadly, cave-dwelling disease is sweeping across the Eastern Seaboard, killing 90 to 100 percent of bats in some colonies. Like Freddy Krueger, this killer waits until its victims are asleep, but it's even more mysterious than the sweater-clad Elm Street villain. Three years after first appearing in a single New York bat cave, the fungus has now infected 81 caves in nine states, and scientists still aren't sure where it came from, where it will go next or even how exactly it kills.

"We can't directly link the fungus to organ failure or anything like that," says U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Susi von Oettingen. "It certainly is ultimately responsible for the death, but we're not sure how."

Scientists are sure, however, that it's bad news for millions of American bats, which recover slowly from population loss since many have just one offspring a year. Bat experts are also worried the disease, known as "white-nose syndrome," will soon begin hopping through vast cave networks underneath the Midwest and Southeast, potentially wiping out endangered species like the gray bat and the Indiana bat.

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DNR closes caves to protect bats
Move is to prevent spread of deadly fungus.

By Chad Ryan
of The News-Sentinel
Oct 14, 2009

In an attempt to protect Indiana bats from the spread of a deadly fungus, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources closed access to all public caves, sinkholes, tunnels and abandoned mines on DNR-owned properties from May 1 through April 30.

Though the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome, which is responsible for killing more than a half-million bats from Vermont to West Virginia, has not been found in Indiana caves, the DNR took the proactive step under the consultation of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Twin Caves at Spring Mill State Park in Mitchell, about 30 miles south of Bloomington, is the lone DNR property that will continue to allow cave access.

According to the Indiana Cave Conservation Association, most of Indiana's caves are located on private property in the southern part of the state. While the DNR closure has affected only about one third of the state's caves and pits, private owners are joining in to help prevent the transfer of the fungus, which can be spread by recreational cavers.

The impact of white-nose syndrome has definitely affected recreational caving, including that on private property, ICCA president Rob Jarboe said in an e-mail. Private cave owners have closed a few caves due to white-nose syndrome; however, many remain open as they did prior to WNS.

Some landowners have taken steps to allow visitors, so long as decontamination procedures outlined by the National Speleological Society and other cave-related groups are followed. This helps prevent the spread of WNS, if indeed it does find its way to Indiana.

Bruce Silvers, vice chairman of the Northern Indiana Grotto of the NSS in Fort Wayne, said the closures affect many recreational cavers, especially in northern Indiana, because the public-owned properties offer ease of access that most private properties do not.

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Va. officials try to solve 'white-nosed bat' mystery

By Scott Harper
The Virginian-Pilot
October 10, 2009

BATH COUNTY

Breathing Cave is the name of a deep, dark hole in the ground off an unmarked mountain road here in western Virginia, a foreboding place mostly because of what lurks within - bats, hundreds of them.

Inside the mouth of the cave, the limestone walls are cool and moist. There is no light, only echoing creaks and clops of water drops - and the unnerving knowledge that somewhere down a blind tunnel ahead, creatures associated with blood and folklore and rabies are alive and close by.

As the sun goes down, the winged inhabitants silently emerge, the start of another night of feeding. But on a recent evening, a team of scientists and volunteers are waiting for them, equipped with nets and head lamps and a singular mission.

Led by Rick Reynolds, a wildlife biologist with the state Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, the team is looking for clues into a mysterious disease that has killed hundreds of thousands of bats in a quickly expanding zone now stretching from upstate New York to Virginia.

After trapping bats in soft netting for hours in the dark, then judging their weight, sex, age and overall health by flashlight, it becomes clear something is not right.

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Cave program falls to budget cuts
Mark Sage
Washington County News: News
Wed Sep 30, 2009 - 02:16 PM

By CAITLIN SULLIVAN/Staff

Money for a cave-education and protection program that directly affects Southwest Virginia is included in the bundle of state funding cuts this year.

The Christiansburg-based Karst Program, which works with landowners, government officials, teachers and students on environmental education and cave protection, will shut down, shedding two full-time positions. Officials with the program say the $200,000 budget was cut after more than a decade of work. Unfortunately all across the entire (Department of Conservation and Recreation) we've had to make a number of cuts, Gary Waugh said.

The Karst Program is named after karst, a topography characterized by sinkholes, caves, streams and disappearing springs stretching along the northern border of Virginia and dipping down to its most concentrated area in Southwestern Virginia.

According the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, soil, chemicals or bacteria entering through a sinkhole or even spilled onto the ground in a karst area can quickly flow into groundwater and into people's drinking water. In 2002, the seven Virginia counties in the Upper Tennessee River basin had 304 miles of streams considered "impaired" because they violated clean water standards. Part of what the Karst Program did was teach landowners how to clean out sinkholes and manage stormwater runoff.

Both play a significant role in groundwater because of the topography of karst areas; sinkholes do not have as much filtering, Waugh said. Also part of the Karst Program was Project Underground, a cave education program for teachers and schoolchildren.

The Karst Program worked with cave groups and the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries on white-nose syndrome, which is associated with the death of thousands of bats across the northeast United States. Bats control much of the insect population in caves and play an important role in the ecosystem.

White-nose syndrome was found in Hancock Cave in Smyth County in spring of 2009. The cave lies in the upper limits of the North Fork Holston River watershed and is 11 miles from the most northeastern range of the gray bat, which is not affected by the syndrome yet. McMullens Cave in Smyth County is closed in an effort to prevent the spread of the syndrome.

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Disease ravaged bat may make list
EDWARD MUNGER JR.

Schenectedy, NY Gazette 9/29/2009

In only four years, little brown bats have gone from being the most abundant bats in New York state to being a candidate for the state's endangered species list. An affliction called white nose syndrome has ravaged bat populations in New York and crept into eight other states since it was first discovered in a Schoharie County cave after the winter of 2006-07.

The threat to the bats is so great that, at this point, state Department of Environmental Conservation mammal specialist Alan Hicks on Monday said he expects to nominate little browns for listing during an update of the state's endangered species list this fall.

The Indiana bat, Allegheny woodrat, gray wolf, cougar and eight types of whale are the only mammals on the state's list of 53 species considered endangered, according to the DEC.

Hicks said animals are considered endangered if they are at risk of being extirpated, or eliminated from a region, or extinct altogether within a foreseeable future.

"I would venture to say it would be pretty hard not to include all of our cave-dwelling bats for that reason," Hicks said.

"They're all at risk," he said.

Hicks said endangered species listing typically affords animals more protection.

Starting Thursday, the Northeastern Cave Conservancy is closing three caves -- Knox Cave, Crossbones Cave and Ella Armstrong Cave -- all in Albany County, in an effort to protect hibernating bats.

These seasonal cave closures add to the massive shutdown of caves by federal and state agencies in roughly two-thirds of the country, said Peter Youngbaer, vice president of the Northeastern Cave Conservancy.

Youngbaer said he's planning to attend a major cave conservancy meeting next week in Pennsylvania and for the first time there won't be any caving involved.

"There's no caving, and that's true in a number of events around the country that have just been canceled. People are going into some caves, they're just not going into bat caves," Youngbaer said.

State wildlife agencies, pathologists, researchers and other scientists have been taking various approaches to find an answer to what is killing the bats. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is hoping to coordinate a plan with states, federal agencies and American Indian tribes to manage white nose syndrome.

It spells out various aspects needed to manage these efforts, including getting a database together that all the agencies can use for information.

A centralized system is sought as well to provide immediate access to data and critical information, according to a draft of this plan.

Among the goals is developing a reliable test for rapid diagnosis in bats.

Scientists fear that one of the affected bat populations, Virginia big-eared bats, risks extinction.

The plan calls for establishing a "captive propagation program," an effort to keep these bats alive in a controlled environment.

The amount of money dedicated to researching the syndrome is disappointing, said Mollie Matteson, a wildlife biologist at the Vermont-based Center for Biological Diversity, a national nonprofit group dedicated to endangered species and wild places.

The nonprofit is calling for faster action and more resources to address the "catastrophe."

Bat colonies that still survive now will visit numerous caves and mines while working to fatten up and get ready for hibernation, said Hicks.

Some will be seen in caves now, and they will start filtering into caves and mines as the fall progresses, he said.

By mid-October many of the bats will be in caves hibernating, with most of them in by early November, Hicks said.

Reach Gazette reporter Edward Munger Jr. at 843-2830 or emunger@dailygazette.net.

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As bats disappear, federal response plan is drafted
Boston Globe September 24, 2009

By Beth Daley, Globe Staff

Earlier this month, federal and state biologists met at an abandoned copper mine in Vermont for an annual survey of bats. In previous years they counted at least 900 in a sample. This year, they caught one.

The reduction is due to a deadly bat illness called white nose syndrome that is decimating bat populations in the Northeast. And federal officials are getting more coordinated to combat it. Earlier this month the US Fish and Wildlife Service's Northeast Regional Director Marvin Moriarty announced a draft national response plan to better control the spread, minimize the risk and coordinate research and public outreach efforts for the fast-spreading illness.

Researchers have been stunned how quickly the lethal syndrome has spread ever since bats with a fuzzy white fungus on their bodies were first photographed in February 2006 near Albany. Since then, hundreds of thousand of hibernating bats are estimated to have died -- if not more -- from the illness from Vermont to Virginia. Affected bats can be emaciated and act erratically, flying around during daylight hours in the winter before dying.

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Bat experts watch health of Northwest colonies
After Northeast bat colonies suffer a deadly infection, a local bat study takes on new urgency.
By Sandi Doughton
Seattle Times science reporter

9/14/2009

WENATCHEE NATIONAL FOREST  The tiny male bat didn't expect to wind up in a biologist's hand when he set out in search of a nighttime snack along Box Canyon Creek. After being snagged in a net, weighed and measured, the unhappy creature gnashed its teeth and squirmed as Pat Ormsbee stretched its wing for inspection.The light from a headlamp shone through the translucent tissue, revealing bones tinier than toothpicks. "This is one of the key things we need to be looking for," Ormsbee said, scanning for rips or scars that could signal infection with white-nose syndrome, the mysterious blight that has devastated bat colonies in the northeastern United States.

This bat -- its body no bigger than an apricot -- is given a clean bill of health. Though wildlife officials in Washington and Oregon have received scattered reports of bat deaths this year, there's no evidence of large-scale die-offs and no sign of the fungus believed to be the cause of white-nose syndrome. "We don't expect it to be here already," Ormsbee said. "But we need to start doing surveillance early."

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Maine firm to contribute research on bat syndrome
By Tom Mitchell
July 15, 2009

CASTLETON  Wildlife biologists from a Maine environmental firm will share two years' worth of research on Vermont's bat population to help shed light on white-nose syndrome, the disease that has killed at least 400,000 bats in the northeast.

Stantec Inc. of Topsham, Maine, has installed five of its acoustic bat detectors on Grandpa's Knob in Castleton. The devices detect and log bats that pass by each unit, according to company spokeswoman Alison Smith.

"Stantec's participation in this research effort will provide some of the most valuable data to monitor the effects of white-nose syndrome on bat populations in Vermont," Scott Darling, a wildlife biologist with Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department, said recently. "This critical research could not have been conducted without their assistance."

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Researcher: NH Bat colony wiped out by disease
Peterborough barn had been part of rare long-term study
July 09. 2009 9:20AM

By Meghan Pierce

PETERBOROUGH -- White Nose Syndrome has wiped out a colony of little brown bats in a Peterborough barn, bat researcher Scott Reynolds said Tuesday.

The loss of the colony is the end of this long-term study, he said. "I'm in mourning. I can't describe it. ... I've lost my study. Whether the bats come back or not, my study is dead."

In December, Reynolds said his long-term study of the bat colony that summers in a Peterborough barn within two miles of downtown could be the key to unraveling the mystery of a deadly new bat disease that is devastating the bat population across the Northeast. The study was unique because so few scientists have studied bats over the long term. There is just no funding for it, Reynolds said.

Reynolds, a biologist and a teacher at St. Paul's School in Concord, has studied and tagged little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) in the Peterborough barn for the past 16 years. The barn was a maternity habitat. Female bats filled up the barn every summer to give birth to their pups and care for them.

Reynolds said he believed the Peterborough bats hibernated mostly in New York and Vermont. During the 16 years of his study, he has tagged more than 4,000 bats in the barn and only 11 of those bats have been found hibernating in New Hampshire, he said.

Last year, some bats Reynolds tagged in Peterborough were found dead from White Nose Syndrome in hibernation sites, or hibernacula, in New York and Vermont.

White Nose Syndrome has created an emergency for the type of data Reynolds has collected during his study of the bats in the Peterborough colony. His study includes vital numbers on the longevity, reproductive, sex ratio and mortality rates of the little brown bat.

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Missouri on alert for mysterious bat illness
Wednesday, July 8, 2009

BY Paige Pritchard

COLUMBIA Within the past two years, hundreds of thousands of dead bats have been found their small frames absent of body fat, their wings freckled with scars and their noses covered in a white fungus.

That's according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. A disease referred to as white-nose syndrome is threatening some bat species with extinction. Bat populations that contract the disease have a 90 to 100 percent mortality rate, the Wildlife Service says. Because bats are the primary predator of nighttime flying insects, a significant decline in population could lead to more pests such as mosquitoes and moths.

Missouri is home to nine different species of bats including the little brown bat. White-nose syndrome is most common in these bats.

This is the largest decline in North American wildlife in a century, Peter Youngbaer, white-nose syndrome liaison for the National Speleological Society, said. Not since the passenger pigeon have we seen anything like this.

Since it was first recognized in the Northeast, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey, along with nongovernmental organizations, have raised money to help support research into the causes of the disease and how to keep it from spreading. In addition, many public and private cave owners have either closed their caves or required cavers to decontaminate their gear and clothing.

White-nose syndrome is most common in little brown bats. The first case was found in February 2006 by a caver near Albany, N.Y. Since then, the illness has spread to eight surrounding states: New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia. With the closest affected cave only 500 miles away, biologists and cavers in Missouri expect the disease to spread to the state within the next two years.

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DEP: 90% of Hibernia Mine's bats are dead

BY ROB JENNINGS -- STAFF WRITER -- July 7, 2009

ROCKAWAY TWP. -- More than 90 percent of the 30,000 bats within the Hibernia Mine are dead amid rising concerns about a mysterious illness decimating their numbers throughout the Northeast.

A U.S. Senate hearing on Wednesday will feature testimony on white-nose syndrome, a disease of unknown origins causing the winged mammals to lose stored body fat and eventually die. It is named for the white, powdery fungus growing on the bat's muzzle.

"We must ensure that everything possible is being done to prevent an ecological disaster,'' U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., said in a statement.

First diagnosed in New York in 2006, white-nose syndrome was documented in New Jersey in January after three brown bats -- two in Rockaway Township and one in Denville -- were recovered and sent for testing. Rockaway Township is home to the Hibernia Mine, the state's best-known bat hibernaculum.

Bat sightings throughout the region soared last winter, which scientists attributed to scores fleeing hibernation in a desperate and ultimately fatal search for food.

State Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman Darlene Yuhas said Tuesday that DEP's principal zoologist, Mick Valent, prepared the 90 percent death toll estimate during visits to the Hibernia Mine.

Wednesday's hearing in Washington will begin at 10 a.m. and focus on threats to native wildlife species, with white-nose syndrome on the agenda. Lautenberg said he requested the hearing and is seeking emergency funding for research into a cure.

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State of Tennessee, Nature Conservancy Close Caves to Protect Bats in Southeast
Released on Mon, Jul 06, 2009 - 11:42 am

NASHVILLE Caves located on state lands in Tennessee will be closed for a year in an effort to prevent the spread of White-nose Syndrome (WNS) among the states bat population.

State agencies agreed to close all caves on public property after receiving a request from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. The Nature Conservancy has also agreed to follow the states lead to close all caves located on Conservancy property.

The closures are effective July 1 and temporarily close public access to all caves, sinkholes, tunnels and abandoned mines on state land managed by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and the Tennessee Department of Agriculture Division of Forestry. These lands include state parks, forests, and wildlife management areas. The closure extends through May 2010 and follows similar steps taken elsewhere in response to a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service advisory asking for a moratorium on cave visitations in WNS-affected states and adjoining states.

State agencies will work with The Nature Conservancy and cavers and caving groups to share information and answer questions about the need for the temporary year closures.

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Bat disease expected to hit Kentucky
By Andy Mead - amead@herald-leader.com
June 5, 2009

A mysterious disease that has killed a million bats in nine states is headed toward Kentucky caves that hold three endangered species of the flying mammals, lawmakers in Washington were told Thursday.

"It is reasonable to expect that in the next three years or less, these key populations will be affected," Merlin Tuttle, founder of the Austin, Texas-based Bat Conservation International, told two subcommittees of the House Natural Resources Committee.

White-nose syndrome, as the disease is known, moved with shocking speed from the Northeast to Middle Atlantic states since being discovered three years ago, Tuttle said.

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WhiteNoseSyndrome 07

Nancy Heaslip | N.Y. Dept. of Environmental Conservation

These little brown bats, photographed in New York, have white-nose syndrome.

"This is serious, perhaps irreversible in terms of its harm to the environment and the economy," he said.

Experts estimate that the million bats killed so far would consume nearly 700,000 tons of insects in a year. Some of those insects spread disease or eat farm crops.

The economic impact on Kentucky of closing caves in an attempt to slow the spread the disease also was mentioned in the congressional hearing.

The annual "Crawlathon" at Carter Caves State Resort Park was canceled this year, meaning 600 to 700 people weren't filling up local motel rooms, said Peter Youngbaer of the National Speleological Society.

"There's a tremendous economic fallout to that," he said.

(Caves in the park that hold endangered Indiana bats have been closed, but others are open for tours.)

Scientists don't think people can "catch" white-nose syndrome, but there was a suggestion at the hearing that a public worried about the disease would stay away from commercial caves, hurting tourism.

That is of special concern in Kentucky, where Mammoth Cave National Park is a top destination and eight or 10 privately owned caves operate.

Tom Aley, a consultant advising the National Caves Association, which represents commercial caves, said in an interview that about 10 percent of the 4,000 people who work at commercial caves across the country are in Kentucky.

Several people testifying Thursday said more scientists should be put to work trying to figure out why bats are dying and that will cost money.

Thomas Kunz, a Boston University biologist who is director of the Center for Ecology and Conservation Biology, said at least $10 million to $17 million is needed. About $5 million has been spent so far, a figure that one witness called "a drop in the bucket."

Tuttle emphasized that the money is needed immediately because the disease shows up in new caves every winter.

Experts: Bat fungus causing historic decline

By DINA CAPPIELLO June 4, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) A mysterious fungus attacking America's bats could spread nationwide within years and represents the most serious threat to wildlife in a century, experts warned Congress Thursday.

Displaying pictures of bats speckled with the white fungus that gave the disease its name white-nose syndrome experts described to two House subcommittees Thursday the horror of discovering caves where bats had been decimated by the disease.

As a state wildlife biologist from Vermont put it, one cave there was turned into a morgue, with bats freezing to death outside and so many carcasses littering the cave's floor the stench was too strong for researchers to enter.

They also warned that if nothing more is done to stop its spread, the fungus could strike caves and mines with some of the largest and most endangered populations of hibernating bats in the United States.

At stake is the loss of an insect-eating machine. The six species of bats that have so far been stricken by the fungus can eat up to their body weight in insects a night, reducing insects that destroy crops, forests and carry disease such as West Nile Virus.

"We are witnessing one of the most precipitous declines of wildlife in North America," said Thomas Kunz, director of the Center for Ecology and Conservation Biology at Boston University, who said that between $10 million and $17 million is needed to launch a national research program into the fungus.

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Wayne's World: Caver shares method to kill bat fungus
Egg incubators offer new hope
Posted: May 17, 2009 - 2:00 AM

Leave it to a caver someone who ropes himself into prehistoric darkness and wonders at headlamp-illuminated stalagmites and water-scalloped rock walls to come up with a way to help bats.

In this case, a caver is exploring ways to destroy the invasive fungus tied to the white nose syndrome that killed hundreds of thousands of bats in our caves this past winter.

Actually, the caver, just named Bob, is trying to help other cavers destroy the fungus' spores on cell phones and other equipment they might tote while caving in white-nose infected caves.

Who did Bob tell?

Who else but Ward Stone, the well-known wildlife pathologist for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, who's already tracking new facts about this deadly syndrome.

Turns out that egg incubators offer hope. (They are foam and cost about $55-$60.)

Said Stone: "Use a reliable thermometer and in 12 hours you can kill the fungus of white nose at 120 degrees Fahrenheit. " The higher the temperature, the quicker the kill."

Why the decontamination gadgets?

Because there's a debate out there about whether cavers should be caving at all in places where the white nose syndrome and fungus have been identified.

Given the treacherous nature of this fungus (still to be definitively tied to white nose syndrome, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) should cavers like Bob, despite his hopeful egg incubator, be caving at all?

People are confused about this.

For example, while the U.S. Forest Service has outlawed caving in its national forests (none with caves in New York), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has issued a voluntary moratorium on all caving activity in states known to have white nose syndrome in their caves. But Fish and Wildlife also suggests decontamination methods.

New York's Department of Environmental Conservation hasn't decided, said spokesman Yancey Roy, whether to open its intriguing Surprise Cave near Cuddebackville this year to cavers.

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Bat Illness Spells Trouble For Farmers
Posted 2009-05-11
Disease Killing Off Primary Natural Predator Of Pests
By Jenny Jones

HARRISONBURG, VA- Although they are largely misunderstood, bats are considered among the most beneficial animals in the United States.

So the recent discovery of a rapidly spreading fatal disease called White-Nose Syndrome in Virginia bats, possibly including those in Endless Caverns near New Market, has biologists and elected officials scrambling to save the small-winged mammals.

The syndrome takes its name from the ring of white fungus that often appears on infected bats' snouts and other body parts. Bats infected with the disease also typically have low body fat, dehydration and

demonstrate abnormal behavior.

Scientists don't know what's causing the disease that has wiped out hundreds of thousands of bats since first showing up in the northeast about three years ago. They also don't know how the disease is spread or how to stop it from infecting more bats, which, in most cases, are disease resilient.

The country's first cases of WNS were identified in several caves near Albany, N.Y., in 2006. The disease has since spread to neighboring states, including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Vermont and West Virginia, wiping out hundreds of thousands of bats in the region.

In Virginia, the first cases of WNS were confirmed earlier this year in Breathing Cave in Bath County and Clover Hollow Cave in Giles County.

A couple of weeks ago, biologists discovered more bats with symptoms of the disease in a cave in Bland County, on a building in Cumberland County and in Endless Caverns, a show cave in Rockingham County.

Biologists sent samples of those bats to a national testing facility, but the results are not back yet.

No. 1 Predator Of Pests

While many people think the mysterious deaths of thousands of bats may not affect them, the animals in fact play a vital role in the environment and are a key ally in the fight against crops-eating pests, according to Rick Reynolds, a wildlife biologist with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

Bats are the main predator of night-flying insects, with one bat eating anywhere from 600 to 1,000 mosquitoes and other insects in just one hour, according to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.

In addition to eating many backyard pests, bats are chief predators of many insects that destroy crops, including cucumber beetles, cotton bollworms and June bugs, Reynolds said.

"All of these are pests that cause a lot of damage to agricultural crops," said Reynolds, who is based in of the department's Verona office. "A lot of our bats are out there feeding over agricultural fields."

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Bat experts issue caution

BY ROBERT J. SMITH
Posted on Sunday, May 10, 2009

DEVIL'S DEN STATE PARK - Tri-colored bats hang just past a place in Devil's Den Cave known as "fat man's squeeze."

The tiny brown bats with black wings and reddish forearms slip past the squeeze quicker than fat guys do, and the winged mammals are abundant in this Arkansas cave - one of the most visited spots in Devil's Den State Park near Winslow. It's an easy, half-mile hike from the visitors center to the cave entrance.

Where the cavern opens up to a width no bigger than an average home hallway, the bats dangle by their feet and are camouflaged high on the cave's slanted, sandstone walls. In five minutes, park interpreter Harry Harnish spotted 15 to 20 bats scattered above the cave's wet floor.

The 770 tri-colored bats counted at Devil's Den in January and the Ozark big-ears, browns and gray bats that flitter through some of the 64 Devil's Den caves are threatened by a fungus that's expected to sweep from the Northeast to the Midwest and South. Biologists say "white-nose syndrome" has killed at least 500,000 Northeastern bats in the past three winters and could be in Arkansas within two years.

Scientists say the fungus appears to awaken bats early from winter hibernation, forcing them to use their fat reserves too quickly and leading to their deaths.

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Threat of Bat Syndrome Closes Some Midwest Caves
Produced by Sam Hudzik on Friday, May 08, 2009

Almost all caves controlled by the state of Illinois could be closed to visitors later this year. The state's already taking steps to avoid a deadly syndrome affecting bats.

White-Nose Syndrome has been linked to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of bats in eastern states. Joe Kath is with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

KATH: It's not a matter of if we will get this, but just a matter of when it will arrive here.

Kath says little is known about the disease, but humans could be part of the problem.

KATH: For example, if they were to enter a cave and microscopic spores were to land on their caving gear, and then that day these individuals choose to enter another cave, it's possible, it's feasible that they may spread that fungus that way.

Kath says Illinois is currently discouraging people from visiting most of the state's caves. He says he'll recommend the state issue a formal ban by next winter, a step recently taken by Indiana officials and the U.S. Forest Service.

LOVAAS: I would say 99-percent of all cavers love bats.

John Lovaas is president of the Illinois Speleological Survey.

LOVAAS: There're a few cavers who might be afraid of them when they fly by or something. But there's this huge support for bats in the cavers' community. And, until we get more information, I think the general consensus is we have to stick with these guidelines.

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Disease threatens state's bat population
Thousands dying of white-nose syndrome
Sunday, May 10, 2009
BY BRIAN T. MURRAY
Star-Ledger Staff

Between the densely forested banks of the Musconetcong River, a lone brown bat fluttered and tilted through a light drizzle to scoop up the newly hatched mayflies hovering over the dark water as it flowed through Stephen's State Park.

It is a scene quickly disappearing from New Jersey -- and the rest of the Northeast.

xtinction is a possibility for North American bats, biologists said last week as they continued to battle the enigmatic "white-nose syndrome" that has killed more than 1 million of the winged mammals since 2007 in nine states from Vermont to Virginia.

Bats help nature maintain an ecological balance and assist agriculture by feeding on insects. They also devour the pests that tend to bug people cooking or camping out in the summer months. Biologists contend a bat population of 100,000 eats upward of 21 tons of insects from spring to fall.

Last month, scientists entered the Hibernia mine in Rockaway Township, one of the region's largest bat "hibernaculum" or hibernating locations, to check on the bats before they normally fly out to summer roosting areas.

"We counted only 750 bats. ... We normally find between 26,000 and 29,000 bats in our counts there at the same time each year," said Mick Valent, a zoologist with the state Division of Fish and Wildlife.

It is unclear whether the missing bats, 95 percent of the population, are dead. But that has been the trend in other states since New York biologist Alan Hicks discovered the syndrome in 2006.

"White-nose syndrome" was discovered in New Jersey in January when Valent found hundreds of dead bats in the Hibernia mine. Other bats displayed classic traits of the syndrome -- prematurely leaving hibernation and frantically taking to the skies in search of insects that had not yet hatched. With their fat reserves exhausted and food unavailable, the bats froze and died.

Valent said there is a chance that some of the Hibernia mine bats survived and left the mine days before he got there.

"Some states had found bats in the areas of their summer roosts two to three weeks earlier than normal," Valent said. "I do know we had a high mortality. But we'll have a better sense of mortality in the fall when we see how many survived the summer and return to the hibernaculum."

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White Nose Syndrome Affecting Tourism
Pendleton County
Posted: 6:02 PM May 6, 2009
Last Updated: 7:38 AM May 7, 2009
Reporter: Mallory Brooke

The deadly bat fungus, White Nose Syndrome, continues to spread throughout the Northeast.

WNS is not only taking a toll on the bat population. Its also affecting areas that rely on tourism from cavers, such as Pendleton County in West Virginia.

Liz Warner of the county's Chamber of Commerce says that more than 25 percent of people calling or visiting the chamber ask about caving.

"Caving, climbing, hiking, top three I would say," says Warner.

Because of the speed at which WNS is spreading, many of the caves across the state and the nation are closed to cavers.

Warner has to tell cavers that many caves in the county are now closed, which keeps the tourists away.

"At places where cavers typically stay, campgrounds, their March and April numbers were about half of what they would typically see this time of year," says Warner.

The impact can be seen just by a lack of parked cars along the road.

"Where we're standing right now, Trout Rock Cave, there are three caves right here," says Warner. "And typically this time of year, this little patch of gravel, it would be lined cars, out-of-state plates, visiting the county to go caving. So there's definitely an impact."

The U.S. Forest Service is preparing to close thousands of caves and former mines throughout Virginia, West Virginia, and 31 other states. They could stay closed for up to a year.

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Funds sought to probe bat die-off

By Peter Hirschfeld VERMONT PRESS BUREAU - Published: May 6, 2009

Vermont's congressional delegation is seeking increased federal resources to investigate what is killing bats, whose widespread die-off could bring ecological disaster.

So-called white-nose syndrome, first detected in New York in 2006, has since infiltrated nearly all of the approximately 30 hibernation caves monitored by the state of Vermont. Scott Darling, a wildlife biologist for the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife, said few bats will be unaffected by the mysterious syndrome that kills 95 percent of affected animals.

"In my 27 years in the field I have never seen any suite of species get devastated so swiftly and dramatically as this," Darling said. "I would dare say the Green Mountains of Vermont have never seen a suite of species been taken off the landscape so quickly."

Officials have singled out a fungus as the "leading candidate" as the source of the die-off.

"We're still uncertain whether this is cause of mortality or a symptom, but clearly a lot of our attention is focused on that fungus," Darling said.

Darling, who traveled to Washington, D.C., recently to lobby for increased fiscal resources, said the issue demands more scrutiny.

"We need the funds in order to orchestrate or implement a very collaborative and deliberative attack on finding out what is killing the bats, how we can contain it and then how we can restore our hibernacula and our bat populations," Darling said.

Sen. Bernard Sanders, who co-signed a letter to the Secretary of the Interior seeking emergency funds, said the event could have wide-ranging effects on the eight Northeast states affected by the syndrome so far.

"The bottom line is we're looking at an epidemic," Sanders said. "And we're going to have a very serious problem if we don't stop this significant disruption in the balance of nature."

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states seeking federal funding to investigate fatal bat illness
by Brian T. Murray/The New Jersey Star-Ledger
Tuesday May 05, 2009, 8:44 PM

Federal lawmakers are seeking emergency funds from the U.S. Department of Interior to help scientists in the northeast investigate white nose syndrome, a phenomenon blamed for the deaths of more than 1 million bats over the past two winters.

U.S. Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez (both D-N.J.), along with 23 lawmakers from a dozen other states signed a letter written today by Vermont's congressional delegation to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar asking for his support. Citing the importance bats play in the North American ecosystem, including their consumption of insects, the letter states that white nose syndrome "has profound public health, environmental and economic implications."

"It is clear that threats like WNS have the potential to influence ecosystem function in ways that we currently do not understand," the letter said. "Bats reduce the need for pesticides, which costs farmers billions of dollars every year and are harmful to human health."

The letter did not ask for a specific amount of money.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, an arm of the Interior Department, released nearly $1 million through the Pennsylvania Game Commission in April for ongoing studies by a team of scientists from New Jersey, New York and other affected states.

But the lawmakers fear that, at the rate it has spread, white nose syndrome may soon appear in the southeast, which holds some of the nation's largest and most diverse bat colonies.

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Bat disease forces cave closures at Mark Twain National Forest
By Kim McGuire
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
05/01/2009

Public access to about 600 caves in the Mark Twain National Forest has been cut off because of a bat-killing disease that may spread to the Midwest.

The U.S. Forest Service's eastern region has issued an emergency order that closes caves on more than 12 million acres of public land, from New England all the way to Missouri.

Federal officials point to the onslaught of white nose syndrome, which has killed more than 500,000 bats across New England and mid-Atlantic states.

It first showed up in 2007 near Albany, N.Y., and within two years had traveled to Virginia.

Scientists think white nose syndrome may next strike the Midwest and Southeast, which are home to several endangered species of bats.

Many mysteries surround the disease, which poses no risk to humans and appears to be spread from bat to bat. Affected bats have been found with white fungus, typically on their noses. Their behavior is altered, flying outside of caves during the winter or clustering at the entrance of a cave rather than inside.

Scientists also believe humans may be inadvertently spreading the disease when they go into caves, perhaps through fungal spores on hair, clothes or equipment.

That concern is what spurred the U.S. Forest Service to take a pre-emptive strike and restrict public access to caves and mines in 20 states, including Missouri. The Shawnee National Forest in Illinois decided on its own last month to close nine caves.

"We know this is an inconvenience, but we really need to ask for the public's cooperation until we know more and have a better plan," said Mark Twain's deputy forester, Paul Strong. "We believe ... doing nothing could have very dire consequences."

Caves on state-owned land in Missouri, including those at popular spelunking spots in Onondaga and Meramec state parks, will remain open to the public. Some state officials believe a closure order may be premature.

Missouri is home to two federally endangered species of cave-dwelling bats the Indiana and gray bats.

While gray bat populations have increased in recent years, Indiana bats continue to struggle. One study shows the species' population dropping from 300,000 in 1979 to less than 16,000 today.

"The white nose syndrome presents just another serious risk for bats, which are an incredibly important species," Strong said. "We really hope this action buys us a little more time."

The closures are scheduled to be in effect for one year. Violators could face fines of up to $5,000 or six months in jail, according to the closure order.

Jeffrey Crews, president of the Missouri Speleological Survey, said he was surprised that the Forest Service issued a regionwide closure order instead of making decisions on an individual forest level.

He pointed out that many of the bigger caves located on national forest land already have limited access. He hopes Mark Twain managers will grant special use permits to some of the newly closed caves for certain groups.

"Missouri has about 6,000 caves, so we're only talking about one-tenth being restricted," Crews said. "Still, with these closures, I think some recreational cavers are going to have to become more structured, more project-oriented like many of us are anyway. It's certainly going to affect the caver who gets up Saturday morning and suddenly decides they want to go explore a cave."

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Bat disease leads to moratorium on caving
By Karen Price
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, April 11, 2009

Caving enthusiasts all over the Northeast are being asked to step aside from spelunking in the hopes of saving bats.

On March 26, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued an indefinite moratorium on all caving activity from Maine to North Carolina and inland to Ohio and Kentucky in an attempt to stop the spread of White Nose Fungus, a disease that has killed at least 400,000 bats in the past two years.

"It became clear to us that although we believe the primary mode of transmission is from bat-to-bat, it was possible that humans were aiding in the transmission," said Diana Weaver, spokeswoman for the USFWS. "There are so many unknowns with White Nose Fungus; we don't even know exactly what it is. We decided it was better to suggest we close caves and attempt to slow down the spread and give us time to find answers rather than allowing the spread to continue unchecked."

Mysterious Bat-Killing Disease Found In 2 Virginia Caves

Brigid Schulte
The Washington Post
Sat, 11 Apr 2009

First, the frogs began disappearing, with as many as 122 species becoming extinct worldwide since 1980. Then honeybee colonies began to collapse. Scientists fear that bats might be next.

For the past three years, biologists in Virginia have been nervously watching a strange die-off of bats in the Northeast as a mysterious fungus spread rapidly through hibernating bat colonies, leaving caves that once served as safe havens for the hibernating creatures carpeted with the tiny, emaciated carcasses of an estimated 1 million dead bats.

Biologists here were hoping that the fungus would somehow be contained or would burn itself out. Instead, they were shocked last week when researchers confirmed the presence of the fungus, dubbed white nose syndrome for the ring of white fungus that collects on bats' muzzles and wings, in two caves in the state: Breathing Cave in Bath County and Clover Hollow in Giles County, hundreds of miles from the other known infected caves.

"We thought we'd have more time to prepare," said Rick Reynolds, a wildlife biologist with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. But it wouldn't have mattered. "Unfortunately, no one knows what to do about it."

What is known is this: As many as 90 to 100 percent of the bats in infected colonies have died within a year of finding the fungus. And with its spread this far south, there's no reason to think it will stop. Scientists are beginning to whisper the unthinkable: complete annihilation of some species.

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Bat disease worries cave operators, researchers

By Joe Knight
Leader-Telegram staff
April 5, 2009

SPRING VALLEY - Jean Cunningham sat at her kitchen table with a laptop computer and called up a photo of a cluster of bats hanging from a cave wall.

Their noses were covered with white fuzz.

That's bad for the bats and potentially bad for the environment, explained Cunningham, who has operated Crystal Cave near Spring Valley for 22 years with her husband, Blaze.

Happily, the bats in Crystal Cave don't have the white-nose syndrome, a deadly fungus. It has been detected in Eastern states, but it is spreading quickly and kills bats 98 percent of the time, according to federal wildlife officials.

On March 1 and 8, cavers from the Minnesota Speleological Survey joined Cunningham to complete an annual bat survey in Crystal Cave. This year they not only counted hibernating bats but also took soil samples from areas where bats congregate.

These include areas where tours take place and regions off-limits to the public. Similar bat surveys are being conducted in more than 200 U.S. caves in the East and Midwest, Cunningham said.

The U.S. Geological Survey National Wildlife Health Care Center in Madison will analyze the Crystal Cave samples. Cunningham said the center is analyzing soil from 30 states.

Sick bats' PR problem could prove to be deadly

By Beth Daley
Boston Globe Staff / April 6, 2009

To a public raised on vampire movies, bats are loathsome, frightening creatures - blind, flying rodents that all carry rabies, suck human blood, and get impossibly tangled in long hair.

None of it is true. But scientists trying to drum up a public outcry - and government funding - to stop a mysterious illness ravaging bat populations from Vermont to Virginia believe these myths are thwarting their efforts. The researchers say they are learning a harsh truth about the public's desire to save animals: Cuteness rules.

Despairing bat biologists want to hire a publicist - a kind of public relations batman - to give bats an image makeover and educate people about the night creatures' ecological benefits. If they could get people to care even half as much as they do about polar bears, these researchers say, desperately needed dollars and attention may follow to save the misunderstood animals.

"We're talking about the need for a full-time publicist, and talks on CNN and David Letterman," said Tom Kunz, a Boston University bat researcher who wrote letters to Democratic US senators John Kerry and Edward Kennedy last month, pleading for help to get research dollars - and that was before he got word Massachusetts' largest known winter bat colony in Chester had plummeted from what was believed to be about 10,000 bats to 116 in the past two years.

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Smokies closing caves to protect bats from killer fungus

By News Sentinel staff
Originally published 09:33 a.m., April 3, 2009
Updated 09:33 a.m., April 3, 2009

GATLINBURG The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is closing all of its caves to protect their residents bats.

A disease has swept through the Northeast, killing an estimated 400,000 bats, according to a park statement this morning.

The malady, white-nose syndrome, is believed to be transmitted from bat to bat, but humans may also spread the fungus inadvertently.

As a result, the park is immediately closing its 17 caves and two mine complexes that require permits to enter.

Violators will face fines of up to $5,000 and six months imprisonment.

The disease has hit bats that hibernate in caves and mines in nine states, from Virginia to New Hampshire, according to biologists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The fungus shows up on the faces of bats, including the endangered Indiana Bat, which has been recorded in the park along with other species.

The disease causes bats to come out of hibernation severely underweight, causing them to starve before their food source insects emerge in the spring.

Biologists are still uncertain about the cause of WNS in bats, according to park biologist Bill Stiver.

However, it is believed to be transmitted from bat to bat but also may be inadvertently transported from cave to cave by humans.

It has not yet arrived in Tennessee or North Carolina, so we are closing all our caves to reduce the odds of the fungus hitching a ride to our protected caves on a caver coming from a state where it is already established.

The park is closings its caves on the recommendation of the Fish and Wildlife Service, Stiver said.

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Workers find ways to fight bat fungus
Wednesday, April 1, 2009

By Edward Munger Jr.
Schenectday, NY Daily Gazette Reporter

DELMAR It's not clear how the white fungus found on dead bats relates to the massive bat die-off over the past three years, but state Wildlife Pathologist Ward Stone and a crew of interns have discovered several ways to kill it.

The work, focusing on disinfectants, temperature, bacteria and ultraviolet light, could lead to methods for disinfecting caving gear to ensure that humans aren't spreading the affliction.

It might also hold clues to bring scientists closer to stemming the spread of the white nose syndrome, which was first observed in New York with the discovery of thousands of dead bats in 2006.

The affliction has now spread to seven states, and the fungus, Stone said, is a newly discovered variety that doesn't have an official name yet.

So far, Stone said he has learned the fungus:

Dies in temperatures near 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Can survive indirect sunlight but dies when exposed to direct ultraviolet light.

Can be killed with some disinfectant products, such as Lysol.

We set out to understand the biology and just get the basic information then some people said, we want to kill it,' Stone said Tuesday at the state Wildlife Pathology Unit in Delmar.

Stone said he sent out detailed information regarding how to kill the fungus this week to caving organizations in a few states.

Intern Rob Hoyt, a wildlife management major at SUNY Cobleskill, began isolating bacteria found on a healthy brown bat and learned that one of those bacteria appears to kill the white fungus.

It's still unclear if the bacteria is typically found on bats or whether its absence has an impact on the bats' dying.

On Tuesday, Stone received a shipment of two incubators used to hatch eggs. Because of the high temperature they can reach, he's exploring using them as a means to rid caving equipment, cameras and other gear of the fungus to ensure that it isn't spread by cavers.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a notice last week asking people to stay out of caves in states where the syndrome was discovered as well as in adjoining states, a request that's garnered support in the caving community but not unqualified support.

The Northeastern Cave Conservancy board of directors met Sunday and decided to shut down caves they own until May 15, despite the federal request that people stay out of caves indefinitely.

Conservancy Vice President Peter Youngbaer said May 15 is the typical day caves are re-opened because it's believed that bats are done hibernating by then.

Several of the [cavers] are not convinced that the science they're relying on really justifies staying out of the caves in the summertime. We don't think that's been clarified, Youngbaer said.

The federal request to stay out of caves doesn't have an expiration date, and the NCC hopes to continue its work to educate the public and protect land with caves beneath it, he said.

Bat disease has state considering closing caves

By MARK DAVIS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, March 31, 2009

A disease is heading toward Georgia, and state officials say they may close caves to stymie its arrival.

Yes, caves. The disease is white nose syndrome, and it has decimated bat populations in eight states from New Hampshire to West Virginia. If unchecked, it could reach Georgia, home to 16 species of bats.

It's such a mystery that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has urged cave explorers to stay away from caves in those states, plus those in adjacent states.

The disease is apparently not harmful to humans, but scientists don't know if cavers help transfer the disease from one site to the next, said Diana Weaver, a spokeswoman for the agency.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources might follow the agency's suggestion and close caves on state property, said DNR biologist Katrina Morris. The state is home to about 600 caves, most of them located in Georgia's northwestern tip. One, Frick's Cave in Walker County, hosts about 10,000 hibernating gray bats.

An estimated 500 are on private property, while 100 are in state parks and other public sites.

As bats die, feds ask people to stay out of caves
By Associated Press
Thursday, March 26, 2009

ALBANY, N.Y. Citing an "unprecedented" crisis of bats dying off from West Virginia to New England, federal officials on Thursday asked for people to stay out of thousands of caves in states struck by "white-nose syndrome."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made the request to guard against the possibility that people are unwittingly spreading the mysterious affliction when they explore multiple caves. There is no evidence that white nose is a threat to people.

Named for the sugary smudges of fungus on the noses and wings of hibernating bats, white-nose bats appear to run through their winter fat stores before spring. It was confirmed in eight states this winter from New Hampshire to West Virginia and there is evidence it may have spread to Virginia, according to wildlife service spokeswoman Diana Weaver.

Some death-count estimates run as high as 500,000 bats. Researchers worry about a mass die-off of bats, which help control the populations of insects that can damage wheat, apples and dozens of other crops.

The advisory seeking a voluntary caving moratorium also would cover states adjacent to affected states a swath of the nation stretching from Maine down to North Carolina and west to Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio, Weaver said.

Recreational cavers, who have enthusiastically supported past white-nose control efforts, seemed bewildered by the breadth of the request. Peter Youngbaer, white nose syndrome liaison for the National Speleological Society, said the advisory covers tens of thousands of caves and would affect everything from organized caving events to equipment sales.

"The ramifications are mind boggling, and I guess we're all just trying figure out what to do," said Youngbaer, who is based in Vermont.

"I think to great extent it will be followed, but there will be a lot of discussion and tweaking about it," he said.

Researchers suspect a fungus that thrives in cold, moist caves causes white nose and that it is spread from bat to bat. But the syndrome has spread more than 400 miles from the cluster of caves near Albany where it was first observed two winters ago.

Researchers are concerned that humans could be helping the spread, perhaps through jackets or boots worn in an infected cave. Weaver noted that some of the affected caves are popular with cavers.

Federal officials also ask that cavers nationwide refrain from using gear that has been used in states struck by white nose or the adjacent states. Officials ask that everyone avoid caves and mines during the winter hibernation season so bats will not be disturbed.

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Deadly fungus is taking toll on Va. bats

By Christine Miller Ford
The Winchester Star
March 16, 2009

WINCHESTER When Brad Blase heard that a deadly fungus was killing bats as they hibernated in upstate New York in early 2007, he didn't worry too much.

Of course I was sorry to hear that bats were dying, but New York's pretty far from Virginia, explains Blase, administrative director of the Virginia Speleological Survey and a Winchester resident. I didn't see it having an effect on us down here.

But the puzzling disease known as White Nose Syndrome now is taking a toll in Virginia, with the telltale white fungus found this month on bats hibernating in Bath and Giles counties.

In response, state officials last week issued a voluntary moratorium on caving, asking people to avoid visits inside any of Virginia's 4,500 or so caves.

The moratorium is set to remain in place until April 15, but Blase said he wouldn't be surprised to see it extended beyond that date.

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Bat-Killing Disease Spreads to More States
by Brian Mann

All Things Considered, March 11, 2009 A mysterious ailment that is decimating bat colonies in the Northeast has spread more quickly than scientists once believed. "White-nose syndrome," first discovered in 2007, has been confirmed for the first time in New Hampshire and West Virginia. And scientists are investigating suspected sites in Virginia.

Susi von Oettingen, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, says the disease was confirmed last month in West Virginia, home to some of country's rarest and most diverse bat populations.

Scientists say the spread of white-nose into West Virginia and the discovery of suspected sites this week in neighboring Virginia means the fungus could ravage cave-dwelling bats across the U.S.

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Scientists racing to protect bats from white nose syndrome

Friday March 6, 2009
Jane Lindholm

Colchester, VT

(Host) White Nose Syndrome, a mysterious illness affecting bats in the Northeast, has been spreading this winter. Now scientists are racing to protect populations all along the east coast before it's too late. VPR's Jane Lindholm reports.

(Lindholm) Two winters ago, White Nose Syndrome had only been discovered in New York State. Last winter there were four affected states. This winter, eight states are reporting the devastating illness in their hibernating bat populations, from New Hampshire to New Jersey and West Virginia. And there is no end in sight.

Vermont Fish and Wildlife biologist Scott Darling describes the scene at the large Aeolus Cave in Dorset.

(Darling) "The first thing you notice is the smell of dead animals-they are beginning to decompose. And you'll see basically large piles of dead bats. I would estimate between 10 and 20 thousand dead bats on the cave floor."

(Lindholm) Darling says his team canceled studies at the cave because it was inhumane to have to step on so many carcasses. But they did collect about 400 bat samples to send to the American museum of Natural History.

(Darling) "We think it was important that we had an archive of the genetics of that bat population that has hibernated in that cave for, gee, over 10,000 years. Five years from now if bat populations were almost non-existent in Aeolus cave we would have been kicking ourselves for not taking a sample of that bat population when we could have."

(Lindholm) One common factor in sick bats was discovered bats this summer. They were all infected with a cold-loving fungus called Geomyces. But so far, scientists have been unable to determine conclusively whether the fungus is a cause or a symptom of the illness. In fact, scientists are still struggling to understand the disease-what causes it, how it's transferred, and why it affects *some caves and not others. But more than 25 organizations around the country are collaborating on studies and research. One critical study involves exposing healthy bats in Wisconsin to sick bats from New York in a controlled environment.

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