What's Killing Off the Bats?

As a mysterious undefined malady spreads from cave to cave across the Northeast, leaving legions of dead bats in its wake, scientists continue to scratch their heads.

Is it a change in the environment? A virus? A chemical poison?

As with colony collapse disorder, that mysterious malady causing honeybees to inexplicably flee their hives, the bat malady has a suitably mysterious name: white nose syndrome. Scientists have noted a ring of white fungus on the noses of dead and dying bats. They don't know if it's a cause of death or a consequence, or something in between. Emaciation seems the most obvious cause of death, but what's causing it is still unclear.

Coincidentally, the first report of white nose syndrome came in February 2007, around the same time the world was learning about colony collapse disorder. It wasn't until a year later, however, that the extent and dire consequences of white nose syndrome became evident, and public.

Spelunkers have been asked to stay out of caves across the Northeast. The syndrome has been documented in more than 25 caves in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont. Scientists worry cavers in those and neighboring states might spread the disease to new caves.

The U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wis., is studying 100 bat carcasses from the region. The most common species affected include the little brown, big brown, northern long-eared and eastern pipistrelle bats. But the death of Indiana bats is the most highly concerning; with numbers already at historically low levels, the endangered species had a stronghold in the Northeast while its numbers plummeted in other parts of the country. Not anymore.

USGS recently put out a Wildlife Health Bulletin to state and private wildlife biologists – the rough equivalent of a police APB, or all points bulletin. Be on the lookout for dead bats, and be suspicious of potential causes.

"Anyone finding sick or dead bats should avoid handling them and should contact their state wildlife conservation agency or the nearest U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service field office to report their observation," said USGS wildlife disease specialist Dr. Kimberli Miller.

Beekeepers have bemoaned the slow pace of research into the cause of colony collapse disorder since it first made national news more than a year ago. Congress is still debating whether to fund new research as part of the Farm Bill. That's for the bee, whose role in keeping food on our table is well known – they're responsible for pollinating roughly one-third of the crops we eat. Bats play a much less appreciated role in the environment. They haven't been commercialized. The money is unlikely to flow quickly toward a diagnosis or cure.

In that, it may be like the frog crisis. It's the Year of the Frog, but many Americans are unaware that they've already lost many of the native frogs to the encroachment of a deadly fungus killing off amphibians worldwide. It's marched across the landscape, removing frogs and toads along its path, and scientists have struggled to find enough money to study it and hold out little hope of slowing its spread. It's got a name: chytrid fungus.

What, if any, commonalities these maladies have is unclear. But when whole categories of organisms begin to decline – all bees, bats and frogs – it's disturbing, indeed.