Hundreds of Pa. bats killed by mysterious disease

White Nose Syndrome termed a potential ecological disaster CARbondale — Several hundred little brown bats are dead from White-Nose Syndrome (WNS) in Lackawanna County, and the Pennsylvania Game Commission is looking to residents for help uncovering other sites where this deadly disorder may have surfaced. Game Commission biologists had been uncovering signs of what appeared to be an impending syndrome outbreak in Pennsylvania since last spring. Over the past two years, the disorder has killed more than 90 percent of some wintering bat colonies where it first surfaced in New York and spread through New England. Its confirmation in Pennsylvania and New Jersey came in the past two weeks, but Pennsylvania had a surprisingly unique distinction among the states where the syndrome has been documented; Pennsylvania bats were not leaving their wintering quarters - caves and mines - and weren’t dying. Unfortunately, that no longer can be said. Last week, bats were found dead outside of an abandoned mine near Carbondale by a citizen who later reported the findings to the agency. Game Commission Wildlife Conservation Officer Chris Skipper visited the site immediately and confirmed the findings. Bats were dead on the ground; flying from the mine; dropping from the sky. Then on Groundhog Day, agency biologist Greg Turner found bats flying from another Lackawanna County mine near Throop. They shouldn’t have been emerging for another six weeks. Currently, researchers still are unsure exactly how bats contract the syndrome and how it initially and, ultimately, affects a bat’s body. They cannot confirm whether the fungus appearing on some bats is a cause or a symptom of the disorder. New York and New England have lost tens -maybe even hundreds - of thousands of bats to the syndrome over the past two years. Lisa Williams, Game Commission biologist, said the public can help the agency better understand the distribution of WNS by reporting sick-acting or dead bats they find while out and about this winter. “We’re not asking people to go out of their way to help, but if you hike or walk or drive along back roads, and encounter dead or dying bats, we’d really like to hear from you,” Williams said. Bats are an important part of our ecosystem. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service reports that one bat may eat from 50 percent to 75 percent of its body weight in flying insects a night during the summer months. Because females produce just one pup a year, the plunging number of bats — apparently as many as 90 percent loss in some hibernating colonies — translates into a crisis in bat populations in four states with no end in sight and potentially far-reaching effects, an ecological disaster in the making. For more information, visit the Pennsylvania Game Commission - State Wildlife Management Agency website: http://www.pgc.state.pa.us/pgc/cwp/view.asp?a=11&Q=175864 .