Barry Digman
02-25-2008, 12:07 AM
Now, this nasty little twist is really spooky. Bats dying outside the caves that they winter in, unknown fungus, unprecedented..... sound familiar? I don't even wanna do the math.
...It is not even clear if the fungus around the bats' noses - something scientists say they have never seen before - is a cause or a symptom. It may be a sign the bats are too sick to groom themselves, said Beth Buckles, a veterinary pathologist at Cornell University.
The die-offs could be caused by bacteria or a virus. Or the bats could be reacting to some toxin or other environmental factor. Whatever it is, afflicted bats are burning through their winter stores of fat before hibernation ends in the spring, and appear to be starving.
The Northeast has generally had mild winters in recent years. But Hicks said he doubts that is the culprit in some way, since there are no reports of large die-offs in warmer states...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/24/MN7GV2KNU.DTL
...It is not even clear if the fungus around the bats' noses - something scientists say they have never seen before - is a cause or a symptom. It may be a sign the bats are too sick to groom themselves, said Beth Buckles, a veterinary pathologist at Cornell University.
The die-offs could be caused by bacteria or a virus. Or the bats could be reacting to some toxin or other environmental factor. Whatever it is, afflicted bats are burning through their winter stores of fat before hibernation ends in the spring, and appear to be starving.
The Northeast has generally had mild winters in recent years. But Hicks said he doubts that is the culprit in some way, since there are no reports of large die-offs in warmer states...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/24/MN7GV2KNU.DTL