Advisory Against Visiting Caves

Federal officials are asking people to stay out of caves in states from West Virginia to New England, where as many as 500,000 bats have died from a disease called white-nose syndrome.

The Fish and Wildlife Service made the request to guard against the possibility that people are unwittingly spreading the mysterious affliction when they explore multiple caves. There is no evidence that the disease is a threat to people.

Full article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/us/27bats.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Eeek...

Thanks for the heads up!! While we don't technically go caving...we've been known to poke around small caves in the Dacks. We will stay away until further notice.

I know that hurts the industry....but, I would imagine that Cavers would completely understand why. I would think the bats are an important element in the spelunking experience. If I were told that as some last ditch effort to protect bats they asked that hikers and backpackers to stay off the trails for a year from Virginia to Maine, I would voluntarily give that up. Not saying it wouldn't hurt... but I would do it. I guess I would squeeze in a solid vacation spent on trails out west.

It's my opinion that no industry (or form of recreation) should take preference over survival of bats. The whole ecosystem would change drastically without these important little critters. It's scary to think about what might happen.....

Update

The federal Forest Service is preparing to close thousands of caves and former mines in national forests in 33 states in an effort to control a fungus that has already killed an estimated 500,000 bats.

Full article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/us/03bats.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Tom Rankin said:

The federal Forest Service is preparing to close thousands of caves and former mines in national forests in 33 states in an effort to control a fungus that has already killed an estimated 500,000 bats.

Full article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/us/03bats.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Thank you very much for the heads up, I appreciate it. I wish them well in trying to control this!

Tom Rankin said:

Federal officials are asking people to stay out of caves in states from West Virginia to New England, where as many as 500,000 bats have died from a disease called white-nose syndrome.

The Fish and Wildlife Service made the request to guard against the possibility that people are unwittingly spreading the mysterious affliction when they explore multiple caves. There is no evidence that the disease is a threat to people.

Full article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/us/27bats.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Click to expand...

Do you really think humans are spreading this or are the bats just putting their noses in the wrong places?

This could be the result of unprotected sex or some other socially commnicable disease.

I really would like Doug Paul to chime in on this one with a little science.

Little Rickie said:

I really would like Doug Paul to chime in on this one with a little science.

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Why me?


Humans could be spreading the pathogen or otherwise contributing to the demise of the bats. (Human visitation in winter is known to disturb the bats and cause them to waste energy that might ultimately be required for survival.) Humans are also liable to visit multiple caves which could spread the pathogen quickly over large distances. (Like air traveling humans spreading a certain flu virus that apparently originated in pigs...)

While there are other possible routes/reasons for the pathogen to spread, the responsible thing for humans to do is to stay away until the bats recover or humans can be eliminated as a factor.

Much of this is in the original NYT article.

Doug

I'll start with this and see if I can find some more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_nose_syndrome

http://www.fws.gov/northeast/white_nose.html

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/1163874

Direct microscopy and culture analyses demonstrated that the skin of WNS-affected bats is colonized by a psychro-philic fungus that is phylogenetically related to Geomyces spp. but with a conidial morphology distinct from characterized members of this genus. This report characterizes the cutaneous fungal infection associated with WNS

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Can someone explain this in english.

Little Rickie said:

This could be the result of unprotected sex or some other socially commnicable disease.

I really would like Doug Paul to chime in on this one with a little science.

Click to expand...

I think your right, we are ignoring the obvious. I mean are these bats having unprotected sex? Or is someone having unprotected sex with the bats?

Doug Paul, please chime in.

I'm glad the cavers are OK with this. Kudos to them. I just don't think humans are the culprits. Time will tell.

Ya never know, it could be toe fungus.

Geomyces spp. are soil inhabiting fungi, and are thought to be involved in the decay and decomposition process.

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psychro-philic fungus

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Maybe global warming took a dormant spore and brought it back to life.

ColdRiverRun said:

Doug Paul, please chime in.

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Bongggggg!

Doug

Little Rickie said:

I'm glad the cavers are OK with this. Kudos to them. I just don't think humans are the culprits.

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We don't know if humans are a factor at this point. (We could be a factor simply because we disturb them even if we don't carry the fungus.) Or maybe we carry fungus spores around on our shoes.

Considering that whole colonies of bats are threatened with being wiped out, minimizing human visits is an appropriate precaution.

Doug

DougPaul said:

We don't know if humans are a factor at this point. (We could be a factor simply because we disturb them even if we don't carry the fungus.) Or maybe we carry fungus spores around on our shoes.

Considering that whole colonies of bats are threatened with being wiped out, minimizing human visits is an appropriate precaution.

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There were previously stringent guidelines about equipment used in one cave could not be used in another cave unless it could be sterilized, which clothes, packs, etc. couldn't under the guidelines. And of course it could be spread into other parts of caves.

As DP says, there is presently no good data on whether human visits are an issue and most cavers for now are willing to take a short break. But if as I suspect in a couple years nobody still knows what causes it, there will be a lot of pressure to reopen already-contaminated caves for instance and cavers will keep new finds secret so authorities won't know about them.

There is a certain type of bat listed as endangered that a well-known caver says are actually very common, and he has offered to provide lists of colonies of any reasonable number of bats if the officials agree that number is enough to remove them from the list. But they won't provide the number, and he won't tell them where more bats are as it will just mean more of his favorite caves will be closed.