Bats Perish, and No One Knows Why
Wildlife biologists fear a significant die-off in about 15 caves and mines in New York, as well as at sites in Massachusetts and Vermont. Whatever is killing the bats leaves them unusually thin and, in some cases, dotted with a white fungus. Bat experts fear that what they call White Nose Syndrome may spell doom for several species that keep insect pests under control.
Researchers have yet to determine whether the bats are being killed by a virus, bacteria, toxin, environmental hazard, metabolic disorder or fungus. Some have been found with pneumonia, but that and the fungus are believed to be secondary symptoms.
I'm going to have to stock up on more citrinella candles and DEET. The bats are major factors in keeping night flying insect pests under control. They do a job on both mosquitoes and moths. If bat numbers nose dive, you can be sure these insects will experience a population boom.
4 comments:
I am not a huge fan of flying things, but I kind of like bats...a little weirdish, not something I'd want to get too terribly close to, but, if they serve a kind of good purpose in our ecology, then more power to them.
I went into a bat cave in Israel a few years back and one of my travel mates told me that if you stick out your tongue and something gloppy falls on it that tastes like liquid peanut butter, it's bat caca.
"if you stick out your tongue and something gloppy falls on it that tastes like liquid peanut butter, it's bat caca."
I won't ask if you tried it. Just looking at the way you've got your mouth firmly closed and tongue well retracted in your pic is answer enough.
I had a small summer colony of bats in the attic of the Bolt Hole for several years. They made a mess inside that I would have to clean occasionally but every evening I would enthusiastically cheer their appearance as they swept te yard of mosquitoes.
pro or con of global warning???????????????
This may be totally independent of "climate change". The pros don't seem to know what is causing the problem at all. All they can be sure of are some of the symptoms; i.e. pneumonia and fungal infection.
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