Bat populations keep falling; extinctions feared

We've reported on the mysterious syndrome affecting Northeast bats here, here and here; now scientists are developing a more accurate picture of the sheer volume of the plight, but are still far from any answers. "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 U.S. scientists are calling the most precipitous decline of North American wildlife in human history," Stacey Chase of the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine reports. (Globe photo by Jordan Silverman)

Scientists fear if the trend isn't soon reversed, the entire species could be extinct within the next decade. "We’re at the vanguard of an environmental catastrophe," Tim King, a conservation geneticist with the U.S. Geological Survey in West Virginia, told Chase. "There’s very little definitive information available at this point." Population counts at two dozen small winter colonies in New England have fallen from 48,626 bats to 2,695 since the outbreak began.

The syndrome was first detected near Albany, N.Y., in February 2006 and has spread to Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. Scientists say it may be headed toward Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina and Ohio this Winter. White-nose syndrome gets its name from the white fungus that develops on many infected bats around noses, ears, wings and other exposed skin. Chase reports one theory suggests it kills the world's only flying mammal by waking it from winter hibernation more frequently, leading to starvation.

The disease appears to be primarily spread by the bats themselves, but some fear cavers may also be transmitting the disease on their equipment from infected caves to clean ones. In response to that fear, the U.S. Forest Service closed almost 2,000 caves and mine sites last year, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has requested the public observe a caving moratorium in 17 states. Others fear the syndrome may be related to recent mass deaths in frog and honeybee populations. Scott Darling, a Vermont fish and wildlife biologist, told Chase: "If it’s frogs yesterday, bees two days ago, bats today, and something else in two more years, how long before this system falls apart on us?" (Read more)