What's Causing Bats to Drop Like Flies?

It would strike me as odd if the fungus were the direct cause. The fungus apparently is endemic to caves frequented by bats, therefore they have evolved in an exposed state, and should be able to ward off infestations by the fungus. Unless they are otherwise compromised somehow with a reduced immune system. The question of starvation arises, and could be attributable to habitat reduction as well as the use of insecticides. I'm hoping for updates to this one!

This is bad news to be reading any day, but especially so on Halloween.

I'm a little skeptical that humans are reducing the insect population that dramatically and so recently. I thought the use of pesticides had generally diminished over the last few decades. Surely farmers applied higher quantities of more lethal ones in the past. Could it be that the insects are more often surviving exposure to current products and then transmitting the poison to the bats when eaten? Or possibly a new pesticide has been released which is unfortuantely greatly toxic to bats.

Still...it's odd that it's only in the northeast US. My money is on a pathogen that the bats are spreading to one another. If this turns out to be the case, I'm not sure what if any options we would have. Just let it run its course and hope a few survive?

"...I'm not sure what if any options we would have..."

Innoculations maybe? Tiny little hypodermic syringes? Oral vaccines would probably make it easier...pills that look like mosquitoes. It would be truly ironic if it was a disease like West Nile virus or equine encephalitis that is transmitted by skeeters. I guess that would make it an eating disorder...

Maybe it's cell phones. They were blamed on declining bee populations. Caves get rid of low frequency RF, but maybe not the HF stuff of cell phones.

Most likely cause is bats which did not stock up on enough insects before hibernating.

All creatures have fungi and moulds growing on their epidermis.

There is the probability that the insects they ate may have been contaminated with sprays and/or common farmyard chemicals.

It's when a creature is stressed, that illness or fungi infections can increase to cause diseases and/or death.

Kind Regards....

They are probably becoming a little punchy from getting bonked in the head by wind power blades.

"The syndrome apparently kills the bats while they hibernate, depleting their fat reserves months ahead of schedule," (from the link to white-nose syndrome)

Death does tend to result in fat depletion

I'll skip the obvious gag about white powder around the nose.......It sounds like another indicator of something wrong on a larger eco-picture, but they don't appear to have any evidence of cause. Many species get hit by some mass illness of unknown origin, and may/may not recover. The Black Death did a pretty good number on people.

I hesitate to go here, but I will : the article mentions how hibernating bats experience temperature drop down to ambient conditions. Has there been any noticeable temperature change in the areas studied ?

The following link contains a mass of others (haven't read 'em yet) ;

http://www.batbox.org/The_white_nose_syndrome.html

Seems like anything bad that happens in this world is first looked upon as having a possible man made cause. We have been conditioned quite deeply at this point in time.

If it's a man made cause............. it was probably something tracked into the caves by bat researchers.

That's my story ....and I'm stickin' to it.

Looks like you may be right on...Recent radio interview on Canadas National Radio Program ,Quirks and Quarks with two research scientists from Madison Wisconsin yesterday,December 6 2008...came to a similar conclusion..The fungus was tracked down to the genus level at this point,A Geomyces species,with similarities to a fungus that damages bird populations in the antarctic..The theory is that some spelunkers,possibly bat researchers that have travelled to antarctica and have come in contact with the fungus carried it back to the Albany NewYork area caves on their clothes/equipment/somehow and it was offloaded into a cave harbouring bats where it found a perfect environment to prosper at the resident bat colonies expense..An interesting interview and readily available by googling CBC Radio Quirks and Quarks and looking for yesterdays story..This site generally directs you to the interviewies research paper(s)for further ellucidation..Regards,Marty W.