Bad news for bats

White nose syndrome found in Lackawanna County

By SANDY LONG

LACKAWANNA COUNTY, PA — The latest development in the spread of a mysterious disease causing the deaths of many thousands of bats has prompted the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) to seek the assistance of state residents, now that dead bats have been found near abandoned mines in Carbondale and Throop.

“If you hike or walk or drive along back roads, and encounter dead or dying bats, we’d really like to hear from you,” said Lisa Williams, a PGC biologist involved in the organization’s attempt to identify the distribution of bats afflicted with white nose syndrome (WNS), which has been confirmed in New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Bats with WNS display characteristic rings of white fungus around their muzzles and on other areas of their bodies. It remains unclear whether the fungus is the cause of death, or a related symptom, but the end result is the same: bats deplete their fat reserves, suffer starvation and leave roosts too early, before insects are available as a food source. The fungal organism thrives in the cold and is believed to be a type of Geomyces fungus.

The die-offs were first observed in January 2007 near Albany, NY, where approximately 11,000 bats from four affected caves died. Over the past two years, the disorder has killed more than 90 percent of the wintering bat colonies where it first surfaced, and was confirmed in Pennsylvania and New Jersey within the past month.

PGC biologist Kevin Wenner, who participated in the Carbondale mine investigation, reported, “Bats have been and are staging close to the entrance of the mine; some dying in the mine while others were flying around and dying outside. The bases of several trees near the mine entrance had piles of dead bats around them. Hundreds were visible on top of the most recent snow, so I suspect there are thousands of dead bats.”

According to PGC spokesperson Jerry Feaser, the agency is working with biologists and epidemiologists across the country while it continues to monitor the situation in Pennsylvania. “We have longstanding reviews of bat hibernacula in Pennsylvania which have allowed us to document what was happening before the bats began to die,” said Feaser. This research may supply yet another piece in the evolving puzzle that is WNS.

Bats are important to human welfare in many ways, since they pollinate plants and reduce insect populations. They help to minimize crop damage and the spread of diseases such as West Nile Virus, and aid in reforestation by dispersing seeds in their droppings. More than 450 commercial products such as fibers, dyes, medicine and timber come from bat-dependent plants.

Visit www.fws.gov/northeast/white_nose.html for information on WNS from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. To contact the PGC at its Northeast region office, call 570/675-1143. The agency offers additional information about bats on its website at www.pgc.state.pa.us where sitings of diseased or dead bats can also be reported.