Deadly bat disease discovered in N.C. caves

The deadly disease decimating bat populations across the Eastern United States has reached North Carolina, wildlife officials said yesterday. White-nose syndrome "has been documented at a closed mine in Avery County and in a cave at Grandfather Mountain State Park," Bruce Henderson of the Charlotte Observer reports. The disease had been found in neighboring Virginia and Tennessee. "This discovery marks the arrival of one of the most devastating threats to bat conservation in our time," Gabrielle Graeter, an N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission biologist, told Henderson. (NY Department of Environmental Conservation photo of white-nose infected bats in New York by Nancy Heaslip)

"Scientists believe the disease is caused by a newly discovered fungus that often grows into white tufts on the muzzles of infected bats," Henderson writes. "The fungus was first identified in New York state in 2006 and has spread into Canada and south to Tennessee." Sue Cameron, an endangered-species biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, noted, "The discovery does not bode well for the future of many species of bats in Western North Carolina." The infected bats were found during FWS-funded investigations at mines and caves across Western North Carolina this winter. (Read more)