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Bat Killer: White-Nose Syndrome [Video]

By David Biello | Aug 21, 2009 02:50 PM | 3

Since it was first observed in New York in 2006, a bat-killing infection known as white-nose syndrome has spread across the eastern seaboard. More than a million bats of six different species have perished so far and infected caverns continue to be discovered. That's bad news since the fungus kills at least 90 percent of the bats it infects.

Even worse, the fungus may not be the culprit, but merely an opportunistic invader breaking out among bats already weakened by some other unknown factor.

Check out the fungus and efforts to fight the bat killer in this video:

 

The Battle for Bats: White-Nose Syndrome from Ravenswood Media on Vimeo.

Tags: bats, spelunking, white nose fungus, northeast, infectious disease
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  1. 1. Bogart 12:58 PM 8/31/09

    What's the name of the fungus? Where else does this fungus live? C'mon biochemists, can't you make something that selectively kills the fungus? Being that fungi are harder to empathize with than bats, I'd say a genocide of white fungus will not be too hotly debated. What irony if that plan backfired! perhaps the fungus always existed in the caves and something else is causing it to thrive. I'd like to see the fungus experts point of view though. Trying to remove fungus from bats' noses in an ecosystem as delicate as a cave's makes removing brain cancer seem easy.

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  2. 2. Shelly 02:25 PM 9/17/09

    A great related article with video about top bat expert Prof. Thomas Kunz and his work on white nose syndrome:

    http://www.bu.edu/today/2009/09/03/bat-man-vs-white-nose

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
  3. 3. crittercatchersinc.com 08:10 PM 3/9/11

    The fungus is Geomyces destructans.

    Dave Kugler
    crittercatchersinc.com

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
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