In pictures: White Nose Syndrome (BBC) {bat die-offs in NE USA}

[eppur_se_muova]

Text and photographs by Jane Lindholm

At the Aeolus Cave in East Dorset, Vermont, in the north-eastern United States, 23,000 bats spend the winter huddled in its deep crevices.

But this year something is amiss. Bats have been leaving the cave long before they are supposed to and find themselves without food or shelter in the cold Vermont spring.

These bats are suffering from an illness called White Nose Syndrome.

The disease was first discovered last winter in two caves in New York. Nearly every single bat in those caves died. Now more than 500,000 bats are affected in caves and mines in at least five north-eastern states. But scientists have yet to figure out exactly what the illness is, what causes it, or how to prevent it.

What wildlife biologists do know is that it causes sick bats to emerge from hibernation much earlier than expected with very low body weight, symptoms of pneumonia, and often a white fungus around their noses, thus the mysterious illness’s name.
***
more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/08/in_pictures_white_nose_syndrome/html/1.stm

[suston96]

1. Answers to global warming doubts lie in the habits and early movements of the animal kingdom....nt

[Fledermaus]

2. I have several bat houses with several hundred bats.

and I have been watching these news reports with some anticipation and fear. So far it has just been in the north east. If it comes to Texas and Mexico it will be very bad. People just don't know how important bats are.