Wow, white nose syndrome is far worse than the brown nose syndrome I see around work everyday.
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Wow, white nose syndrome is far worse than the brown nose syndrome I see around work everyday.
I know there are swarms of bats at running springs. and that's not far from pcockQuote:
Originally Posted by RN
Maybe we could use some NFSA funds to build some houses at PSSP, Troy, etc....
They cannot be terribly expensive. I believe it would be an excellent return on the investment.
I just got the report that yet another cave in Virginia has been discovered to contain WNS.
:(
So what is it that's killing the bats?Quote:
Originally Posted by Squirrel Girl
Anyone know the status of the research so far?
No one knows what's killing them. The "White Nose" is due to a fungus growing, yes on their snouts, but also on their wings and so on (check the cover shot on the NSS News a month or so ago). The fungus might kill them direction (I don't think that's thought to be true), but it also could be an opportunistic infection. Is it a virus? Is it something related to the environment?Quote:
Originally Posted by Puttzer
Here's the link to the NSS WNS Info page:
http://www.caves.org/WNS/WNS%20Info.htm
Here's the link to the March 2009 Research Status Report:
http://www.caves.org/WNS/WNS2009research.pdf
Here's the US Fish and Wildlife Service's WNS page:
http://www.fws.gov/northeast/white_nose.html
The problem with WNS is that nobody knows exactly how it kills bats. There is speculation that the fungus somehow depletes the fat reserves and therefore they wake up from hibernation in search of food. Foraging during the winter is a death wish to any bat. There are little to no insects for them to forage on and many starve to death. WNS is a fungus not a bacteria or virus. Fungus spreads through spores. It is hypothesized that bat to bat may be a main vector, but that humans are helping spread the fungus by walking though the dirt in a cave and then going to other caves without properly decontaminating gear. Currenlty a 10% bleach solution has been touted as the way to decontaminate your gear, however there has been much specualtion about decontaminating life saving gear (rope, climbing harnesses, etc.).
For now the SCCi has closed all of it's caves until a proper investigation of this deadly fungus can be completed. This includes caves that have water in them. Also, the USFWS has asked for dry cavers to stay out of caves in states where WNS has been located and in any adjoining state. This closes a huge section of the US to caving. As we are cave divers, it really does not affect us unless you are a sump diver (which I am).
One thing is for sure, there are hundreds of thousands of bats that have died due to this fungus. Many times they are just performing necropsies on the bats they find.
Here are a couple of additional links for your information.
From Fox News:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,487492,00.html
http://wvgazette.com/News/200902210385
Protocols for decontaminating gear:
http://www.fws.gov/northeast/whitenosemessage.html.
A WNS webinar from Feb 20:
http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?I...ry=Environment
There is a lot of information out there for those concerned.
a REALLY sobering video of how bad this is
http://www.batmanagement.com/wns/wns.html
scroll down 3/4 -left side- Aeolus cave video
Last time I visited the 'Bats' one was missing! Now there is only two!
Last time I peeked a couple weeks ago , I believe the 'Bats' population has increased slightly.Quote:
Originally Posted by metaldector
Beano