Going to bat for flying mammals
effect on pest control in agricultural systems,” said Justin Boyles, a professor in the zoology department at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. “Enough species are around that we may see them pick up the slack.”
Whatever the effect on the economy, there are a lot fewer northerns, a species hit hard by whitenose syndrome.
“I have literally seen this species decline before my very eyes,” said Mark Ford, a Virginia Tech professor who oversees Freeze’s bat research.
Ford, who has studied northern long-eared bats for two decades, said he remembers a time when he would catch dozens during mist-netting sessions. Those days are done.
White-nose began to strike more than a decade ago, Ford said, originating in Europe and Asia. Eating away at the membranes in their wings, the disease left piles of dead bats marked with telltale white dots in caves where they hibernate. The sickness seems to wake them from their winter slumber earlier, depleting critical fat reserves and causing dehydration. When they leave the caves too soon, they can die from exposure or starvation.
A scientific paper published in the medical journal PLOS Pathogens called the disease “the most devastating epizootic wildlife disease of mammals in history.” The infected animals act erratically during winter hibernation, sometimes emerging from caves — where the fungus easily spreads — during the day, then not returning.
Theories abound on why some bats survive: They might avoid caves, spending the winter in trees, where the whitenose threat is lower because of less-cramped quarters. Or some might be resistant to the disease.