A four-year study recently published in Ecology and Evolution concludes that the fungal disease, white-nose syndrome, poses a severe threat to many western North American bats.
A four-year study recently published in Ecology and Evolution concludes that the fungal disease, white-nose syndrome, poses a severe threat to many western North American bats.
Since it was first detected in 2006, white-nose syndrome has killed millions of bats in eastern and central North America. The spread of the fungal pathogen that causes white-nose syndrome in hibernating bats has reached several western U.S. states, mostly likely through bat-to-bat spread, and is presently threatening western species.
Bats with white-nose syndrome have fungus growing on their nose and wings, as the name implies, but the fungal infection also triggers a higher frequency of arousals from hibernation. Each arousal involves an increase in body temperature from as low as near freezing (when bats use torpor) to an active mammalian body temperature (~98˚F or 38˚C), which uses a significant amount of energy. Bats have limited fat stored for the winter, and if this is used up before the end of winter, death by starvation occurs.
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Image Credit: Kim Raff
