white nose bat fungus!

[codykrr]

not sure if you are aware, but its recently came to my attention by a missouri conservation agent, that missouri and parts of Oklahoma's cave are closed to the public due to a fungus that attaches itself to bat's noses killing them.

he also asked if we see a bat with a white nose to not touch it and call your local extension office.

this is becoming a serious problem and is apparently sweeping across the U.S.

just think of the impact this could have

more info

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne...2C48022FE5DA66FA8625771B000CEE7A?OpenDocument

http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1708&category=Environment

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[PrimalTaunt]

I was listening to NPR yesterday and there was a brief blurb about this. It hasn't quite made it up to Wisconsin yet but they're expecting it to be here in the near future.

 

[codykrr]

yeah, it is to my understanding that it was just discovered here in Missouri and
Oklahoma within the past year.

My buddy who is a conservation agent, is working with a few people on this. we were speaking on the phone and it got brought up.

very sad. i hope they figure it out soon!

i just hope people are respectful enough to stay out of the caves. i mean we have a ton of them here in missouri!

 

[PrimalTaunt]

The problem here in Wisconsin is that the bat population is not very well known at all with most people working with birds (it was actually a bird segment that they were doing) and very few people on bats. However, in a couple years when it's makes it up here they're expecting that to flip flop if something hasn't been found to help it. Hopefully it doesn't get to that point. I don't envy you your mosquito population if it really is that bad.

 

[Toirtis]

It would appear that the infection could well be spreading via contaminated equipment that spelunkers are transporting from hole to hole.

 

[codykrr]

well they dont know yet. hence why missouri closed ALL of its caves, except for places like Merrimack caverns, fantastic caverns...ect..ect. basically all the toured caves/ride through caves.

i just hope they get a hold on this, because its really bad up north.

 

[zonbonzovi]

It eats keratin?!? Not species specific as its been found on 6(?) different bat sp. I wonder if it has the potential to cross over to other mammalians. There is a fungus in the same genus that causes mild trouble in humans, but we don't hibernate in damp locations(well...some of us do).

 

[Toirtis]

well they dont know yet. hence why missouri closed ALL of its caves,

We have closed our bat caves here, too.