Fungus threatens bat populations, none found in Shawnee

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[White-nose syndrome is decimating bat populations in the northeast and is predicted to spread nationwide.

The U.S. Forest Service has closed all caves and mines in the Shawnee National Forest with known bat populations, hoping to slow the spread of white-nose. The deadly fungus grows white on the noses of bats, irritating them into flying outside to their deaths in the winter.

"Right now we haven't identified it anywhere yet on any of the bats that hibernate on the Shawnee National Forest or Southern Illinois," U.S. Forest Service Wildlife Biologist Steve Widowski said.

"We looked at them over the winter and none had signs."

The disease is mysterious. It can be spread from bat to bat and there is strong evidence it can be spread from cave to cave by people.

"It appears it can be spread by people. People pick it up in the soil and fungus on their clothing when they are caving and can introduce it somewhere else. They believe that's how it started, maybe outside the country, even, into the northeast by cavers," Widowski said.

Bat caves infected are far enough apart it is unlikely healthy bats came in contact with sick bats from infected caves.

The closest cases to the midwest are Virginia and West Virginia. White-nose was first documented in New York and has also been found in Vermont and Pennsylvania.

Experts in June spoke to Congress describing the horrors of the fungus.

As a state wildlife biologist from Vermont put it, one cave there was turned into a morgue, with bats freezing to death outside and so many carcasses littering the cave's floor the stench was too strong for researchers to enter.

They also warned that if nothing more is done to stop its spread, the fungus could strike caves and mines with some of the largest and most endangered populations of hibernating bats in the United States.

White-nose apparently irritates the bats into leaving hibernation early, wasting their stored energy, being unable to find insects and starving to death.

"That's a symptom you'll see, lots of bats in the wintertime flying around," Widowski said.

So far the bats affected are those that roost or hibernate in caves and mines. These include the endangered Indiana bats and Illinois endangered southeastern bats. Whether the disease affects southeastern bats is unknown because that species does not live in the northeast where the disease has been found.

At stake is the loss of an insect-eating machine. The six species of bats that have so far been stricken by the fungus can eat up to their body weight in insects a night, reducing insects that destroy crops, forests and carry disease such as West Nile Virus.

"We are witnessing one of the most precipitous declines of wildlife in North America," said Thomas Kunz, director of the Center for Ecology and Conservation Biology at Boston University, who said that between $10 million and $17 million is needed to launch a national research program into the fungus.

Merlin Tuttle, a world-renowned bat expert and president of Bat Conservation International in Austin, Texas, said that white-nose syndrome was probably the most serious threat to wildlife in the past century. He also called for more research to determine its cause and how it was being spread.

"Never in my wildest imagination had I dreamed of anything that could pose this serious a threat to America's bats," Tuttle told the panel. "This is the most alarming event in the lifetime of a person who has devoted his life to recovering these populations."

Since it was first discovered in a cave west of Albany, N.Y., in March 2007, white-nose syndrome has spread to 65 caves in nine states, turning up last winter in West Virginia and Virginia, federal wildlife officials said. There are also several caves suspected of harboring the fungus in Canada.

To date it has killed between 500,000 to 1 million bats, mostly common species.

Widowski said the U.S. Forest Service biologists are using different techniques during bat surveys to rule out they are contributing to the white-nose spread. They are using treated clothing, boots and equipment and disinfecting their hands after handling bats.

Treated clothing and closing caves to people could stop any human spread of white-nose, but keeping infected bats from spreading it is very likely impossible.

The Forest Service in 2006 closed Equality Cave in the Eagle Mountains after finding evidence someone was shooting BB guns in the cave. At the time the Forest Service invited caving groups to get a key for the locked entrance for summer tours, but Widowski said that program is suspended during the white-nose anxiety.

In a worst case scenario -- 90 percent of the nations bats dying off -- the results could be severe.

"If we take them out of the ecosystem insects and probably pest insects will increase. We don't know the effect on forests, crops and people. We don't know how important they are," Widowski said.

Widowski believes the first sign of a massive bat die off will be the increase in tree diseases in the forests.

"If we lose the numbers, I suspect we will see the results," Widowski said.

-- DeNeal receives e-mail at bdeneal@yourclearwave.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report.