General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFungal disease fatal to bats spreads to half of USA
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) A fungal disease that has killed millions of North American bats is spreading and now has been detected in half of the United States.
Officials in Michigan and Wisconsin said Thursday they've confirmed that bats in their states have been diagnosed with white-nose syndrome, which first showed up in the U.S. in upstate New York in 2006.
The disease is named for the white fuzz it creates on the animals' noses, wings and tails. It causes hibernating bats to wake frequently, which saps their energy reserves and can cause them to starve or dehydrate before spring arrives.
In some caves where the disease has been spotted, more than 90 percent of bats have died.
more
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/fungal-disease-fatal-bats-spreads-half-us
rrneck
(17,671 posts)An excellent report on the bat problem and how it fits with other impacts by humans on the diversity of the planet.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Sixth-Extinction-Unnatural-History/dp/0805092994
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
Over the last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around, the cataclysm is us. In The Sixth Extinction, two-time winner of the National Magazine Award and New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert draws on the work of scores of researchers in half a dozen disciplines, accompanying many of them into the field: geologists who study deep ocean cores, botanists who follow the tree line as it climbs up the Andes, marine biologists who dive off the Great Barrier Reef. She introduces us to a dozen species, some already gone, others facing extinction, including the Panamian golden frog, staghorn coral, the great auk, and the Sumatran rhino. Through these stories, Kolbert provides a moving account of the disappearances occurring all around us and traces the evolution of extinction as concept, from its first articulation by Georges Cuvier in revolutionary Paris up through the present day. The sixth extinction is likely to be mankind's most lasting legacy; as Kolbert observes, it compels us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be human.
Kelvin Mace
(17,469 posts)and massive losses in the bat population is going to mean an explosion in the insect population and subsequent bug-born diseases.
WhiteTara
(29,676 posts)Killing off the pollinators and the natural insect control. Whew; we are a busy, destructive little species.