Map illustrating the ranges of endangered species of hibernating bats in the U.S. and the spreading distribution of White-nose syndrome What is White Nose Syndrome:
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.
NPS:
In mid-October, New York DEC bilogists helped set up video cameras in a mine where WNS has severly impacted hibernating bats. The U.S. Geological Survey and National Park Service planned and funded this project, which is also monitoring a cave likely to become affected by WNS this winter. The video surveillance will monitor for aberrant behaviors of hibernating bats, such as excessive grooming, unusually long periods of activity, or winter flight. USGS researchers are assessing whether such behaviors could be the link between skin infection by the fungus Geomyces destructans and death by starvation after premature depletion of winter fat reserves. Preliminary results are expected by late spring 2010.State fish and wildlife agencies have until Jan. 8 to apply for state wildlife grants. Last year, Northeast Region states combined forces and received $940,870 for white-nose syndrome work.