Bat skull and remains in a site affected by White-Nose Syndrome. Photo by Ann Froschauer for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
The bad news about bats just keeps getting worse. The New York Department of Environmental Conservation announced today that 32 caves and mines throughout the state have been infected by the deadly White-Nose Syndrome, a fungus that has slaughtered bats across the country. From the press release:
"Caves and mines that avoided infection in the early years of the disease, perhaps by chance, are now infected," said Acting DEC Commissioner Peter Iwanowicz. "This year's survey included hibernation sites that had not been visited by DEC in decades. What we found was disturbing. We now have sampled sites that represent the full range of environmental conditions across the state – and none have been spared. It is likely the sites not yet inspected are infected as well."
The epidemic is so bad that a ten-percent survival rate in several New York caves passes for good news:
Yet in contrast, population numbers held steady after steep, first-year declines at Howe Cave and Haile's Cave (located in the greater Capital Region) at roughly 10 percent of their pre-disease count. "Infected animals were present at these two sites, so it's too early to say the decline here has halted," said DEC bat biologist Carl Herzog, "but these two caves represent the most hopeful results in an otherwise negative report."
The DEC's report comes on the heels of new national plan for fighting White-Nose Syndrome, which was released by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service last month. The plan, a draft of which is open for public comment until December 26, 2010, proposes everything from preventing the spread of the fungus to conserving bat populations with radical measures.
Last month, the USFWS point person for bat issues, Jeremy Coleman, gave the Times Union an idea of what those measures would be:
"We are looking at everything. Even the reestablishment of bat populations is being considered, and that could include the captive maintenance and holding of bats, full-on propagation, down to the temporary holding of bat colonies during the winter in some kind of protected bunker," he said.
Despite these ideas, eveyone is grim. It's clear that some species of bats are facing a real threat of extinction.
To read the new plan for handling White-Nose Syndrome, see below. To comment on the plan, e-mail WhiteNoseBats@fws.gov, send mail to WNS National Coordinator, New York Field Office, 3817 Luker Road, Cortland, NY 13045-9348, or send a fax to 607-753-9699.
