Alabama: White Nose Disease Strikes Bat Cave Endangering One Million
B. McPherson Bat with white nose syndrome and electron micrograph of fungus on bat hair White nose disease has been detected in the Fern Cave National Refuge in Alabama. It is home to about one million endangered gray bats and is their principal wintering cave. The disease has wiped out whole populations of bats since its introduction to N. America in 2006. It has not been confirmed how the disease spread from Europe to this continent, but suspicions lie with bat researchers or cavers who inadvertently brought spores of the fungus back with them in their clothes or equipment. The fungus Geomyces destructans , attacks the muzzle and wings showing up as white fuzz on the nose of the bats. They break their winter hibernation and fly out of their caves searching for insects which, of course, are not around in the winter. The bats die of starvation. "White-nose syndrome has arrived in the very core of gray bat habitat and it's like a bomb waiting to go off. Desp...