White-nose Syndrome is ‘Unprecedented wildlife disaster.’

[GliderGuider]

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/4/prweb9383395.htm

More than six million bats are dead, and millions more are expected to fall victim to a disease known as White-nose Syndrome, or WNS. First identified in the northeastern United States, WNS has wiped out an estimated 95% of Pennsylvania’s bat population and is quickly spreading across the country. It was most recently discovered in Missouri, Delaware and Alabama.

“This is like bringing small pox to the New World. It is surely an unprecedented wildlife disaster for North America,” said Bucknell University professor Dr. DeeAnn Reeder. Reeder is one of the country’s leading experts on WNS, and one of the researchers responsible for identifying the cause of the disease in 2011. “We can’t stop this thing. It’s marching across the country and we’re going to see some extinction.”

Reeder has been studying the disease since shortly after it was discovered in a New York cave in 2006. Since then it was been detected in at least 17 other states. Few bats exposed to the fungus that causes WNS survive.

“I was recently in a mine where I should’ve seen 10,000 or so bats. There were 150,” Reeder recalled. “We don’t know if the survivors have some immunity, or are lucky. If they’re just lucky, we’re in trouble.”

[watrwefitinfor]

1. Five years ago I would sit on my porch just before daybreak

and watch dozens of bats swoop back and forth across my yard, gathering their little buggy dinners before turning in for the day in the old barn.

Two days ago I saw one bat swooping. That was the first one I have seen in about two years.

Was he immune, or just lucky? If he's immune, maybe he's lucky enough to have a mate who is immune, too.

Wat

[stuntcat]

4. me too! it was in the evening we watched them.

We're on a hill so we have a good spot to see them against the sky. Every night we used to see a lot of them, so many that we put up four bat houses!
But we don't see many now. In a little while I'll go out and watch for them but I know I'll only see one or two

[ladjf]

2. I haven't seen a bat or honey bee in my yard in years.

[GliderGuider]

3. That thought makes me feel more than a bit