Mar
25th
Tue
25th
Wildlife biologists fear a significant die-off in about 15 caves and mines in New York, as well as at sites in Massachusetts and Vermont. Whatever is killing the bats leaves them unusually thin and, in some cases, dotted with a white fungus. Bat experts fear that what they call White Nose Syndrome may spell doom for several species that keep insect pests under control. Researchers have yet to determine whether the bats are being killed by a virus, bacteria, toxin, environmental hazard, metabolic disorder or fungus. Some have been found with pneumonia, but that and the fungus are believed to be secondary symptoms.
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Bats Perish, and No One Knows Why - New York Times
When I first read this I thought they had discovered White NOISE Syndrome, not White NOSE Syndrome. White Nose sounds bad enough, but imagine bats dying from the ambient effects of man made white noise? Or urban and suburban noise somehow interteferring with their ability to hunt at night? The high pitched whirl of disk drives in pc’s, ipod’s, etc somehow all singiing in the same tone and damaging the inner ears of bats. Man made frequencies polluting the night air, an invisible and inaudible threat to our bat friends. Instead, for right now it’s probably just regular old pesticides. But one can imagine, right? Just a thought.