Bats with White Noses

A mysterious, emergent disease is killing off American bats

A relatively new disease is emerging, and over the last two winters, it has spread through nine eastern US states and has decimated various bat populations -- they are dying by the hundreds of thousands

It's called white-nose syndrome, a poorly understood disease characterized by the appearance of a white fungus around the muzzle of a bat.

But bats themselves are often misunderstood. They occupy a vital and unique part of the ecosystem, pollinating plants and regulating insect populations that are harmful to agriculture and forestry.

GET INVOLVED

• Sign a Center for Biological Diversity letter telling Congress and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar that you support immediate, emergency funding to address white-nose syndrome and the protection of imperiled bats

RELATED POSTS

• Wind Energy Not So Great for Bats (August 18, 2008)
• Bats Dying From Mystery Illness (April 5, 2008)

image: map of occurrence of White Nose Syndrome by county as of March 4, 2009 (image credit: Cal Butchkoski, Pennsylvania Game Commission, via Flatbush Gardener)