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I thought more folks should be aware of this...
Truth,
Pat
The Bats and the Bees
by Devilstower
Sat Mar 01, 2008 at 05:49:01 PM PST
Last year the Internet buzzed (okay, bad pun) with the word that bee colonies around the world were falling apart. While many explanations continue to be put forth for Colony Collapse Disorder, there's another creature that lives in huge colonies which are also facing a mysterious and spreading disaster.
Thousands of hibernating bats are dying in caves in New York and Vermont from unknown causes, prompting an investigation by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, DEC, as well as wildlife agencies and researchers around the nation.
...
"What we've seen so far is unprecedented," said Alan Hicks, DEC's bat specialist. "Most bat researchers would agree that this is the gravest threat to bats they have ever seen."
The disease has become known as "White Nose Syndrome" as many of the dead and dying bats are found with their muzzles frosted by a coating of white fungus. However, it's not clear if the fungus (which is of a common variety) is actually a part of the disease, a symptom of the disease, or just an opportunistic fungus that appears on bats that are already ill.
At first, a decline in bat populations may not seem all that important. After all, the only time most people encounter a bat is when one makes a home in their attic, and the main thoughts people usually have about bats is that they either carry rabies or are somehow determined to entangle themselves in your hair. But bats (who have zero interest in your hair) play a vital role in the ecosystem. Most North American bats are insectivores, consuming many times their own weight in insects each summer evening.
A fall in bat populations means billions of additional mosquitoes and flies in the environments, insects that can spread more disease among other animals, man included. The danger to health and loss of crops represented by increased insect numbers far outweighs the rare cases of disease spread from bat to human. Bats are our friends.
Right now, the outbreak of White Nose Syndrome is limited to the northeast, but it's already affecting several bat species, including the common Little Brown Bat and the endangered Indiana Bat. There are disturbing signs that whatever the unknown cause of this disease, it is easily spread. As the weather warms and bat populations migrate across the country, the possibility exists for spreading this disease much more widely among bats. And that would be a real disaster.
Oh, and the best thing you can do about any bats you encounter? Leave them alone. Interacting with bats can stress them very heavily, especially in the winter when most bats in North America are snoozing through the cold weather. Waking a bat during its hibernation phase can cause it to expend so much energy that it doesn't have enough stores to last until spring. So let 'em sleep, and hope that come spring, bat noses stay brown or black or gray. Because if they go in large numbers, the consequences for everything else are going to be very unpleasant.
::
Truth,
Pat
The Bats and the Bees
by Devilstower
Sat Mar 01, 2008 at 05:49:01 PM PST
Last year the Internet buzzed (okay, bad pun) with the word that bee colonies around the world were falling apart. While many explanations continue to be put forth for Colony Collapse Disorder, there's another creature that lives in huge colonies which are also facing a mysterious and spreading disaster.
Thousands of hibernating bats are dying in caves in New York and Vermont from unknown causes, prompting an investigation by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, DEC, as well as wildlife agencies and researchers around the nation.
...
"What we've seen so far is unprecedented," said Alan Hicks, DEC's bat specialist. "Most bat researchers would agree that this is the gravest threat to bats they have ever seen."
The disease has become known as "White Nose Syndrome" as many of the dead and dying bats are found with their muzzles frosted by a coating of white fungus. However, it's not clear if the fungus (which is of a common variety) is actually a part of the disease, a symptom of the disease, or just an opportunistic fungus that appears on bats that are already ill.
At first, a decline in bat populations may not seem all that important. After all, the only time most people encounter a bat is when one makes a home in their attic, and the main thoughts people usually have about bats is that they either carry rabies or are somehow determined to entangle themselves in your hair. But bats (who have zero interest in your hair) play a vital role in the ecosystem. Most North American bats are insectivores, consuming many times their own weight in insects each summer evening.
A fall in bat populations means billions of additional mosquitoes and flies in the environments, insects that can spread more disease among other animals, man included. The danger to health and loss of crops represented by increased insect numbers far outweighs the rare cases of disease spread from bat to human. Bats are our friends.
Right now, the outbreak of White Nose Syndrome is limited to the northeast, but it's already affecting several bat species, including the common Little Brown Bat and the endangered Indiana Bat. There are disturbing signs that whatever the unknown cause of this disease, it is easily spread. As the weather warms and bat populations migrate across the country, the possibility exists for spreading this disease much more widely among bats. And that would be a real disaster.
Oh, and the best thing you can do about any bats you encounter? Leave them alone. Interacting with bats can stress them very heavily, especially in the winter when most bats in North America are snoozing through the cold weather. Waking a bat during its hibernation phase can cause it to expend so much energy that it doesn't have enough stores to last until spring. So let 'em sleep, and hope that come spring, bat noses stay brown or black or gray. Because if they go in large numbers, the consequences for everything else are going to be very unpleasant.
::
