Fatal Fungus Killing Bats at Alarming Rate

Biologist Explains How a Dying Bat Population Results in Damage to Forests and Farms

(CBS)  The race is on throughout the northeast. From tagging bats with tiny transmitters to infrared flight analysis and blood testing of their immune systems, researchers are trying to solve one of the most devastating mysteries in the natural world: The huge and rapid die off of the species named little brown bats.

"It's unprecedented in North American wildlife, at least in recorded history," Tom Kunz, a bat biologist at Boston University, told CBS News Science and Technology Correspondent Daniel Sieberg.

Biologists are struggling to understand a fungus called white nose syndrome that has killed more than a million bats over just three winters.

The fungus grows on the faces of bats while they're hibernating. It seems to irritate the bats, upsetting their natural hibernation rhythms. They become more active and burn up critical body fat.

"And they're starving," said Kunz. "They have no other source of food."

In some cases, bats fly out into the freezing cold in a fruitless search for food.

"There have been losses of up to 95 to 100 percent in some caves and mines," Kunz said.

It started in just four caves in upstate New York in 2006, spread in 2007 to three states and last winter exploded to a total of nine.

This winter, it's expected to march further south and west threatening other bat species and the nation's largest colonies.

The past two winters, we've witnessed the profound impact tragic for the million bats killed so far, potentially devastating for America's farms and forests.

Think of bats as nature's pesticide. Just one little brown bat is capable of eating up to a thousand insects every night.

"Those million bats would've eaten each summer about 694 tons of insects," Kunz said.

"Really?" Sieberg asked.

"Yes."

"And so, those insects are?"

"They're out here now."

Surviving insects could do heavy damage to forests and woodlands. Other bat favorites, like moths and beetles, attack cotton and corn, potentially forcing farmers to use much more pesticide.

The best hope, still years away, would be a vaccine or fungicide.

"Words don't really provide the nature of how one feels, except by saying it's a very depressing condition," said Kunz. "These bats are not likely to recover in my lifetime."

They've been surviving for 50 million years, but an entire species of bats may be wiped out in less than a decade.

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On the Net:

Cave Biota, a Web documentary about bats: http://cavebiota.com/

Boston University's Tom Kunz: http://www.bu.edu/cecb/BATS/

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service on White-Nose Syndrome: http://www.fws.gov/northeast/white_nose.html

[curiouszz]

If they're in such dire straits is it possible to take them when they first enter hibernation stage and keep them somewhere - a clinical setting - where at least they won't encounter the extremes of cold and starvation. If the researchers are almost sure a certain cave is going to be hit by the epidemic that is? I know how it almost always works - researchers do these painstaking studies that take years before action is taken - but hopefully some action will occur sooner than that to short circuit the path to extinction some species of bats seem to be on...

[batlover]

Whoa! Fungicides are NOT the answer to this problem. The vast majority of commercial fungicides only "control" the fungus- they do not kill it. This may result in making the fungus mutate- just like viruses become drug resistant.

Besides, this fungus is all over the place, not just in the North East. And the bats are not picking it up in barns, they are living with it in caves and caves are delicate, complicated environments not to be "sanitized" without horrible consequences.

[babooph]

Is there any way we can spread this to politicians?? Surely their noses are long enough to be exposed to whatever is out there& like the bats,they dissapear for long periods.....

[steve54z]

The fungus must be destroyed. Farmers should spray their buildings with fungicide(fungulcide). Elimination of this deadly spore will preserve a bat population in Northeast America.

[rf35]

First the bees, now the bats...something new is killing these species. They've survived just fine in the presence of man for thousands of years, so what has changed? The last hundred years has seen the advent of industry and has seen humans manage to alter the content of our atmosphere to a significant degree. Perhaps the pollutants in the air have had an effect on the immune systems of some species or created more favorable conditions for the pathogens responsible for the current die-offs. We are just starting to realize how interdependent we are with the natural world. The extinction of a single species could have huge repercussions on the human race. Since we have been unable to control our population voluntarily, nature is going to do it for us. Unfortunately, this will be neither voluntary nor pleasant. Without bees to pollinate or bats to control "pest" insects, we could be looking at a massive food shortage in North America. How long before we will require aid shipments from the UN? The last two administrations have effectively depleted our nation's ability to cope with a scenario in which we are unable to produce enough food for our own consumption. Not trying to politicize this, but it is all tied together. The greatest nations ever to exist may soon be a "third-world" country with rampant disease, starvations, and death. And we have only ourselves to blame for it.

[12345-908903]

Humans are next.

[bigsista]

Although scientific strides have been made to "improve" the human condition, these are not possible without first experimenting on animals. Perhaps past efforts at cloning and gene manipulation altered natual immunosystems among several species -- hence their dying off. Diseases that were considered rare fifty years ago are now becoming more prevalent at an alarming rate: monkey pox, mad cow disease, swine flu, AIDS, even bubonic plague is making a comeback in some African countries. Who knows, maybe the cutting of the rain forests (in Brazil and elsewhere) and the melting of the artic icebergs may have released pathogens that were dormant for thousands of years. I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot more scary diseases.

[45ford]

is this fungus in any way related to the fungus that is spreading amongst bee colonies and killing them too?

[djconklin]

No; the bees are being affected by a number of viruses.