Some bats beat epidemic
TEXT SIZE
The Intelligencer
Scientists are trying to figure out why these bats have survived the disease at the Durham bat cave.
Ghosts and goblins aren't the only ones in the October skies. Bucks County's bats are swooping back home, to their abandoned iron mine in Durham, and settling in for the winter months.
Early this year, state officials predicted that 90 percent of Upper Bucks' population of 8,000 to 10,000 little brown bats and other species of bats would be dead by spring.
But unlike almost all of the bat populations across Pennsylvania, some of Durham's bats have survived the white-nose syndrome epidemic, a mysterious disease that is killing off bat populations across the Northeast. "I'm hoping that 50 percent survived and will be back this winter," said Pennsylvania Game Commission biologist Greg Turner.
Biologists remain puzzled by the disease, which causes a white fungus to form around the nose of infected bats. They lose body fat needed to survive hibernation, and ultimately the mammals starve to death in winter months. Scientists still cannot figure out exactly how the disease is spread; only that it is transmitted from bat to bat. There is reportedly no threat to humans.
After feasting on bugs and mating in the summer, bats return to their hibernation spots in October. An accurate count of Durham's bats can't be conducted until Turner returns to the mine next month. However, he checked in on the bat hibernaculum this spring and fall, and found that a comparatively good number had survived.
Typically, once a population is infected, 96 percent of the bats will die within one to two years. So far, scientific experiments in both the lab and in bat hibernaculums have given few clues as to what causes white-nose syndrome, how it's spread and how it might be prevented or even cured.
But Durham's rare, positive results might help save the bats colonies that are rapidly dying out across Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia"We're thinking humidity might play a role, and the Durham mine is a nice, dry site," said Turner, an endangered mammal specialist. "If humidity is playing a role, and the fungus doesn't grow well in dry and cold sites, that's something we can manage."
Turner and his team continue to conduct experiments in Durham's bat mine. In September, scientists set up several, four-sided frames, covered with thick netting, to enclose groups of bats. In a new round of tests, they laid out anti-fungal chemicals, all plant-based, to see if the vapors might kill the fungus or keep it from growing on the bats.
State Game Commission biologists are only conducting the experiment in Durham and two to three other mine sites because they are known to be especially cold and dry, said Turner. If the experiment works in those climate conditions "I hope we can establish that as a pattern," he said. "I'm hoping to know if there's an environmental condition we can try to mimic and manage."
Though biologists are trying to work at a feverish pace, trying to save bats before thousands more die, it's important to tread lightly and do no harm, said Turner. "We have to go as fast as we can, but not overstep our bounds," he said. "We're walking a tight line here, trying to do everything we can, as fast as we can, but do everything properly
Ghosts and goblins aren't the only ones in the October skies. Bucks County's bats are swooping back home, to their abandoned iron mine in Durham, and settling in for the winter months.
Early this year, state officials predicted that 90 percent of Upper Bucks' population of 8,000 to 10,000 little brown bats and other species of bats would be dead by spring.
But unlike almost all of the bat populations across Pennsylvania, some of Durham's bats have survived the white-nose syndrome epidemic, a mysterious disease that is killing off bat populations across the Northeast. "I'm hoping that 50 percent survived and will be back this winter," said Pennsylvania Game Commission biologist Greg Turner.
Biologists remain puzzled by the disease, which causes a white fungus to form around the nose of infected bats. They lose body fat needed to survive hibernation, and ultimately the mammals starve to death in winter months. Scientists still cannot figure out exactly how the disease is spread; only that it is transmitted from bat to bat. There is reportedly no threat to humans.
After feasting on bugs and mating in the summer, bats return to their hibernation spots in October. An accurate count of Durham's bats can't be conducted until Turner returns to the mine next month. However, he checked in on the bat hibernaculum this spring and fall, and found that a comparatively good number had survived.
Typically, once a population is infected, 96 percent of the bats will die within one to two years. So far, scientific experiments in both the lab and in bat hibernaculums have given few clues as to what causes white-nose syndrome, how it's spread and how it might be prevented or even cured.
But Durham's rare, positive results might help save the bats colonies that are rapidly dying out across Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia"We're thinking humidity might play a role, and the Durham mine is a nice, dry site," said Turner, an endangered mammal specialist. "If humidity is playing a role, and the fungus doesn't grow well in dry and cold sites, that's something we can manage."
Turner and his team continue to conduct experiments in Durham's bat mine. In September, scientists set up several, four-sided frames, covered with thick netting, to enclose groups of bats. In a new round of tests, they laid out anti-fungal chemicals, all plant-based, to see if the vapors might kill the fungus or keep it from growing on the bats.
State Game Commission biologists are only conducting the experiment in Durham and two to three other mine sites because they are known to be especially cold and dry, said Turner. If the experiment works in those climate conditions "I hope we can establish that as a pattern," he said. "I'm hoping to know if there's an environmental condition we can try to mimic and manage."
Though biologists are trying to work at a feverish pace, trying to save bats before thousands more die, it's important to tread lightly and do no harm, said Turner. "We have to go as fast as we can, but not overstep our bounds," he said. "We're walking a tight line here, trying to do everything we can, as fast as we can, but do everything properly
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment