America's Bats Threatened by New Fungus

A mysterious fungus attacking America's bats could spread nationwide within years and represents the most serious threat to wildlife in a century, experts have warned Congress.

Displaying pictures of bats speckled with the white fungus that gave the disease its name -- white-nose syndrome -- experts described to two House subcommittees on June 4, 2009 the horror of discovering caves where bats had been decimated by the disease. They also warned that if nothing more is done to stop its spread, the fungus could strike caves and mines with some of the largest and most endangered populations of hibernating bats in the United States.

At stake is the loss of an insect-eating machine. The six species of bats that have so far been stricken by the fungus can eat up to their body weight in insects a night, reducing insects that destroy crops, forests and carry disease such as West Nile Virus.

Merlin Tuttle, a world-renowned bat expert and president of Bat Conservation International, said that white-nose syndrome was probably the most serious threat to wildlife in the past century. "Never in my wildest imagination had I dreamed of anything that could pose this serious a threat to America's bats,'' Tuttle told the panel. "This is the most alarming event in the lifetime of a person who has devoted his life to recovering these populations.''

Since "white-nose syndrome" was first discovered in March 2007 in a cave west of Albany, New York, it has spread to 65 caves in nine states, turning up last winter in West Virginia and Virginia, federal wildlife officials said. There are also several caves suspected of harboring the fungus in Canada.

To date "white-nose syndrome" has killed between 500,000 to 1 million bats, mostly common species. But what has wildlife officials concerned is the fungus looks to be on the verge of entering the Southeast and Midwest, where some of the most endangered and largest populations of bats live. The fungus is known to occur in caves used by the Virginia big-eared bat, which has a population of only 20,000.

Source: wvgazette