Mysterious Bat Disease Decimates Colonies: Newly Identified Fungus Implicated In White-Nose Syndrome

Little brown bat with fungus on muzzle.
Credit: Al Hicks

A previously undescribed, cold-loving fungus has been linked to white-nose syndrome, a condition associated with the deaths of over 100,000 hibernating bats in the northeastern United States. The findings are published in this week's issue of Science.

The probable cause of these bat deaths has puzzled researchers and resource managers urgently trying to understand why the bats were dying in such unprecedented numbers. Since the winter of 2006-07, bat declines at many surveyed hibernation caves exceeded 75 percent.

The fungus – a white, powdery-looking organism – is commonly found on the muzzles, ears and wings of afflicted dead and dying bats, though researchers have not yet determined that it is the only factor causing bats to die. Most of the bats are also emaciated, and some of them leave their hibernacula – winter caves where they hibernate – to seek food that they will not find in winter.

USGS microbiologist and lead author David Blehert isolated the fungus in April 2008, and identified it as a member of the group Geomyces. The research was conducted by U.S. Geological Survey scientists in collaboration with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the New York State Department of Health, and others.

Brits find 1km cave in China

Is this the world's deepest cave?

In China's mountainous village of Tian Xing, a team of British cave explorers say they have discovered the world's deepest underground shaft.

Connected by two cave systems, Qikeng and Dong Ba, their combined depth measures an astonishing 1026m.

Photographer Robert Shone spent two months with the climbers charting their discovery beneath Tian Xing.

"I was invited to join an international caving expedition last September by a friend of mine, Richard Gerrish, who lives and works out in Hong Kong," said the 28-year-old from Manchester.

"Along with a team of international climbers, we started our journey on the surface at the entrance of the Miao Keng underground caves.

Turkish Authorities Say: Let Sleeping Bats Lie

Hibernating bats in Havran, near Turkey's Aegean coast, can rest easy this winter, thanks to a decision by local authorities to hold off on pumping water into a nearby dam reservoir, an action that would have flooded their cave.

One cave near newly completed Havran Dam is thought to hold 15,000 to 20,000 bats of eight or nine different species, the second largest colony in Turkey. According to a 2005 paper in the journal Zoology in the Middle East,"the species richness and the colony sizes qualify the site as an Important Mammal Area and would qualify it as a Special Area for Conservation, according to the Habitats Directive of the European Union."

Both cave and dam are in the heavily agricultural province of Balıkesir, where the dam, once operational, will provide water to 3,330 hectares of farmland. But the bats are important to local farmers too, hunting enough bugs to eliminate the need for chemical pesticides.

Pumping will be delayed for six months, until the bats wake up in April. They typically hibernate from mid-fall to mid-spring, when the insects they eat are scarce. Once they leave the cave, authorities will seal the entrance to prevent their return. An artificial cave the same size will be dug in the nearby hills and stocked with guano (droppings) to draw the bats to their new home. Via: "Taps to stay off until bats wake up," 

Source: Turkish Daily News

Ancient cave draws MSU archaeologists to southeast Montana

Seth Alt, an MSU student from Bozeman, screens sediment
from Horseshoe Cave. (Photo by Jack Fisher).

Eryka Thorley had already excavated ancient fire hearths and stone flakes, but a severe thunderstorm on the final day of field work added a new dimension to the archaeology dig in southeast Montana.

As rain careened through gullies and lightning sliced the sky, the recent Montana State University graduate from Michigan and three MSU undergraduates took refuge in the rock shelter they had been excavating the past two weeks. Thorley imagined prehistoric Native Americans experiencing the same kind of weather thousands of years ago. MSU archaeologist Jack Fisher worried that they'd be unable to drive out the next day.

"I was sweating," he said. "It was a tremendous storm right on top of us."

The MSU team, which made it out after all, started excavating Horseshoe Cave in July after federal archaeologists and local ranchers asked Fisher to continue a project that University of Montana archaeologists had conducted in 1976, Fisher said. On the last day of the 1976 dig, the UM team had found a spear point believed to be more than 7,500 years old.

The August and Mary Sobotka Trust Fund, administered by the Montana State Historic Preservation Office, allowed MSU to pick up the project, Fisher said. Others on the MSU team were Seth Alt of Bozeman, Clint Garrett of Texas, and Dallas Timms of New Mexico. Halcyon La Point and Michael Bergstrom, archaeologists with the U.S. Forest Service in Billings, provided supplemental funds and logistical support.