In New York and now 24 other states bats are dying in droves
Since white-nose syndrome first was discovered in Schoharie County in upstate New York in 2006, about one million little brown bats have died in New York alone. That’s about a 90 percent decline in the population of what used to be the state’s most common bat.
Another of New York’s six hibernating bat species, the northern long-eared bat, could be listed as endangered as early as April. It’s seen an almost 99 percent decline in population.
But what does all of that mean?
The syndrome gets its name from the white fungus that appears to cause it, which rings around the noses of many of the affected bats. Though scientists aren’t sure why, impacted bats burn through their winter fat reserves too quickly and effectively starve to death.
Some good news
The dying of the little brown bat population seems to have stabilized, So far, white-nose syndrome has impacted all New York counties, 24 other states — likely soon to be more, and even some Canadian provinces.
“(White-nose syndrome) has increased every year in distribution since it was discovered.
The fungus, likely native to Europe or Asia, is impacting North America’s bats in a way that’s similar to what European diseases did to Native Americans so many years ago.
The white-nose syndrome doesn’t seem to affect New York’s big brown bat population, and, in Europe and Asia today, many kinds of bats live with the fungus just fine.
An evolution of sorts “might even be the best possible outcome we can hope for at this point,” scientists say. “It’s possible that Europeans lost whole entire species of bats to this. No one was around to notice it happening.”
