MidnightWatcher's Blogspot

“Of the 10,000 bats that have hibernated in an abandoned mine in Upper Bucks County for generations, only about 200 are still alive, officials said Friday.

Durham’s bats became infected with White Nose Syndrome, a mysterious disease that’s killing off bat colonies at an alarming rate from Vermont to Virginia.

In late March, Game Commission biologist Greg Turner checked in on the bats hidden in the hillside of Upper Bucks and found near devastation.

‘We’re looking at a 99 percent decline,’ he said.”  Read more.

“By Kristine Gill – Ohio bats are happily hibernating, but a fatal syndrome targeting the winged mammals could soon strike.

White-Nose Syndrome, which leaves a fungus on the nose and wings, has already killed more than 1 million bats in the northeastern United States including Pennsylvania and Indiana, as well as parts of Canada.

‘It’s knocking on Ohio’s door right now,’ said Greg Turner, an endangered-mammal specialist with the Pennsylvania Game Commission. Lawrence County has four confirmed sites just miles from the Ohio border.

Jennifer Norris, a research wildlife biologist with the Ohio Division of Wildlife, is among researchers surveying caves and mines across Ohio as part of yearly tests to map the spread since the syndrome was first detected near Albany, N.Y., in 2006.”  Read more.