Ailment has scientists stymied

By Veronica Burns

This month in Albany, N.Y., scientists will meet in a three-day conference to come up with a strategy to deal with a strange illness that has decimated bat populations in the Northeast. Known as White Nose Syndrome (WNS), the illness develops a white fungus on bats, mainly on their muzzles but occasionally on other parts of their bodies. There is a sense of urgency in the scientific community, which so far has been frustrated with a lack of answers as to the cause and possible treatment of the disease. “Frankly,” says Al Hicks, a biologist with the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, “I don’t think anyone is going to stand up at this conference and say, ‘this is the cause.’” U.S. Fish and Wildlife Biologist Susi von Oettingen is anxious to learn what the many laboratories have found. “I’d like to get a sense of the broad scale environmental effects,” she says, while also emphasizing a need for more staff and money. The first signs of WNS occurred in the winter of 2007 in upstate New York. Visitors to caves in the area reported seeing bats clustering in large numbers at the entrances of their hibernation sites. Bats were observed flying outside their caves in freezing temperatures, and many were found sick, dying or dead in the snow. The bats were emaciated and severely dehydrated. They also bore the telltale white fungus on their bodies. The ailment has spread rapidly and to date, tens of thousands of bats in N.Y., Mass., Vt., Penn., and northwest Connecticut have perished. The death rate in some sites in upstate New York has been as high as 97 percent. Despite the ominous statistics, there is cautious optimism for the northwest corner, where WNS was first confirmed in March of this year. “We have been monitoring the bats as they leave hibernation,” says Jenny Dickson, a biologist with the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, “and so far the weight ranges have been very good. We are not seeing strange behavior or WNS. Bats are leaving at the right time and hopefully they will stand a good chance of fattening up. I think this is reassuring for Connecticut.” There seems to be a consensus that the white fungus is a secondary symptom rather than the cause of the die-off. Theories of the cause include a virus or bacteria and possibly toxins, with one villain thought to be an increase in pesticide spraying in N.Y. to control West Nile virus. Others point to a winter warming trend, which may have sent hungry bats out prematurely searching for food, although Hicks has not found increased temperatures in the caves that he has studied. Little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus), have been hit hardest by WNS, as well as small-footed bats (Myotis leibii). To the dismay of biologists, an endangered species known as the Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis), has also been stricken. “This bat was poised to be a conservation success story,” laments Dickson. Listed as endangered in the mid-80s, Indiana bats were making a steady comeback. “We had been seeing many of them in Connecticut,” she says. “But there has been a big die-off in New York.” A comparison with the plight of the honeybees is inevitable. Researchers have noted similarities in the behaviors of the bats and those bees affected by Colony Collapse Disorder. Both have exhibited neurological dysfunction in their behavior. The bees gathered at the entrance to their hives and left in winter and did not return. Like the bats, the bees were undernourished. Many of the bats in Litchfield County have wintered in Mass., N.Y., and southern Vermont, so it is likely that there will be fewer bats and consequently more insects this summer. “Bats provide a natural insect control,” says Dickson, “that works out well not just for individuals, but also for forestry and agriculture. Our concern is that there will be a ripple effect throughout our ecosystem.” “Personally,” says von Oettingen, “I just can’t imagine the night sky without bats flying around, but that is what could happen.”