This is just incredibly sad to me. In yet another case of an exotic invasive devastating native wildlife, a European cave fungus has been introduced into North American caves, where it infects bats and kills them. So far, in the 6 years since it was first found here, about 7 million bats have died.
In many caves, the mortality rate is 100%.
It’s easily passed from bat to bat, and easily passed between species as well.
For a long time, it was hoped that Alabama, with its vast populations of highly endangered wintering and summering bats, would be safe, because the fungus appeared to be restricted to colder climates.
Well, in short, not anymore.
The day before yesterday, surveyors in Russell Cave, in northern Alabama, found many bats with WNS in the cave. The presence of the fungus was confirmed when they sent tissue samples to be analyzed.
The largest populations of endangered gray bats left in the world are less than 40 miles away from Russell Cave.
I used to live and work in the area, and am (was?) a big caving junkie. I was going to take my Ecology class caving in two weeks. Everyone has been looking forward to the trip all semester. Now I don’t think I can in good conscience do it, for fear of transferring the fungus on caving gear between caves.
There are some days I wish I was convinced, just like 99% of everybody else, that all this shit that makes up the human preoccupation with ourselves is the real world. McDonald’s, the internet, Microsoft vs. Apple, XKCD, the Oscars, politics. It’s not. It’s garbage. Watching 3,000,000 endangered bats fly out of the hibernacula they’ve been using for millennia - that’s the real world. A 3,500 year old tree that’s survived hurricanes, fires, droughts, floods, and wars - that’s the real world.
Goddamn it, I hate humans sometimes. I’d love to be able to not care anymore. Watching this world decline is a goddamn downer.
For the bats that don’t die, do we know why? Is it because they’ve got super immune systems or something? Maybe a small contingent of fungal-resistant superbats will arise from this tragedy and enslave mankind.
Nobody knows anything, other than this is to bats what the Black Plague was to humans, only about 1000 times worse. Hell, the fungal organism was never even scientifically described until 2006, when it was discovered killing bats in New York by the hundreds of thousands.
The average mortality rate seems to be over 90%, and I have absolutely no idea why some bats have not died. Perhaps they lucked out and weren’t exposed.
Part of the problem is that basic science funding is going away. If its not biomedical or technological, we don’t, as a society, give a fuck. Nobody will pay for the research.
I agree with you that it is really depressing. Time and time again, it’s been shown that the introduction of foreign species (plants, animals, diseases) causes so much havoc for native species that never evolved to defend themselves against the invaders yet it’s a danger that most people don’t think about.
I wonder if you could look into changing the caving trip to a trip to a wildlife sanctuary that has bats or something like that. Or perhaps if the caving trip does go forward, you can mitigate the damage by trying to teach people how to decontaminate their equipment. Or at least try to encourage those who go to make a donation to Bat Conservation International’s “White Nose Syndrome Emergency fund” : http://www.batcon.org/wnsdonate
I dunno. I might change it to a very different trip. I’ll have to think about it. As for the decontamination, no, I don’t think so. Thorough decontamination between caves is practically impossible. Even if you follow the proper, hours-long procedure of disinfection and air-drying, there’s no guarantee that you’ve gotten all the spores and hyphae. Really, it’s a risk-minimization procedure, and little more than a feel-good measure. It’s like disinfecting felt-soled waders - pretty much ineffective, because the soles are so porous. Better to just not wear those waders. Better to just not to risk spreading WNS from cave to cave.
Basically, this is the woolly adelgid again, or chestnut blight. Damn it.
Why, in this instance? Because some people who went to caves in Europe went to caves in the US? It’s not as if it’s an intentional introduction of an invastive species. It’s not dumping waste into streams, it’s not overfishing, it’s not draining wetlands to build condos.
‘Unfortunate’ doesn’t even begin to describe the situation, but what’s your solution? People shouldn’t go anywhere? Or, if they do, they shouldn’t bring stuff because it might have a fungus on it?
I fail (read: refuse) to see this as a ‘humans hate the earth’ problem. It’s just something that happened…a shitty, depressing thing that happened.
ETA: Obviously the loss of that many bats will have ecological consequences. IANA biologist, but at the very least mosquitoes and other insects will have a better time of it. Is the possibility of introducing European bats which are immune to the fungus a possibilty, or does that just result in another unintended consequence of a non-native species?
Basically because humans don’t give a shit about anything other than themselves. I am a member of the caving community, and I’ve already seen and heard of jackass caving enthusiasts who are refusing to stop caving or even really take any extra precautions. To them, caving is skydiving. Or skiing. Or biking. Or whatever. It’s about them and their enjoyment, and they don’t give a rat’s ass about the ecology of the cave or what destruction they’re causing.
You know, like pretty much the entire history of humanity stretching back to the Pleistocene.
