Hi folks,
Just in case there are a few of us out there that haven't heard about the current threat to the bats that overwinter in our mines, esp. in the northeast region of the USA, this statement from the PA Game Commission is "hot off the press", and should affect how those of us that explore these spaces tend to our gear and how we behave in those areas where they're hibernating in the winter. Goto;

http://www.pgc.state.pa.us/pgc/cwp/view ... 75717&A=11

minerPete

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Yeah, this is certainly too bad.. Seems like the problem is getting worse, but I feel it is going to be difficult for man to stop something like this. Given the amount of bats in a typical hibernacula, even if there were a vaccination available, how would you administer it? Generally nature handles these types of things with natural selection, but I hope if that is the case, enough bats develop a resistence without damaging the bat population too badly. No matter how you look at it, this is a bad thing.

Miner Greg

It's somewhere between scary and depressing, for sure. I've been involved, for the past few years, with VT and Fed. biologists, assisting in winter bat surveys. And then this has come up, and, in some respects, things have gone into overdrive, while, in other respects, activities have been pretty shut down. Last winter, up here in VT, I ended up doing only one or two surveys, in full Hazmat suits, and after that, the state asked all cavers to abstain from entering any known bat-sites through the rest of the winter and spring, until the bats that survived had left. Fear that cavers were a vector for the spread of the disease, and/or that it might be dangerous to humans caused the reaction, and little has been resolved to alleviate the overlying concern for the bats, but the health issues seem to be cleared, as well as the caver as a carrier idea, but the state still asks all people that go into these areas to use a cleaning/ disinfecting procedure between visits, and the Feds seem to be basically saying, "No fed.s in any known infection sites, with very few exceptions".Sites as far south as KY are being closed for the winter, and I just got word tonite that NJ has just announced an outbreak in their two largest sites, that looks worse than PA's display-to-date. See http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/pa ... _site.html
Watch the line-wrap, you need the whole address.
I'll be doing some surveys in the next few weeks, along with taking soil samples to send out to some labs, trying to see if the fungus is widespread in the soil, or only in infected sites. Be happy to keep people posted here, if there's interest...
minerPete

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Illigitimi non carborundum

I am very interested in your work in this area.. There was just another article posted yesterday in the local papers again about bats in Morris County NJ, which would specifically be the Hibernia Mine..

http://www.ironminers.com/mineforum/vie ... hp?t=20195

From reading the article you just posted, this problem looks a lot worse than what I originally thought. To see hundreds of dead bats littering the floor of a mine is certainly a very sad site. Very sad...

I think the key would be understanding how contagious this is and what kind of resistance, if any, the bats have to it. Have any bats survived the condition? It sounds like a lot of research may still need to be done on this. I'd love to know what kind of lab research was done on the fungus it self to assess what the fungus does..

Miner Greg

HI Greg,
Here's a link to the hottest info site,
http://www.fws.gov/northeast/white_nose.html
Are you gonna join us for some VT winter fun this weekend?? Sure hope so!

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Illigitimi non carborundum

the disease hit pa. dead bats found by the pa game commission at the racketbrook no.10 mine and eddy tunnel.


http://www.scrantontimes.com/articles/2 ... 5_top6.txt

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Not to belabor the point, but here's what was found in VT's largest hibernaculum for the Indiana Myotis. It'll give you an idea of just how bad this illness is, and what to expect, if you find yourself at an infefcted site...Quoted from a recent email:

The scene was gruesome. Wings and pieces of bat strewn about the

landscape up to 50m from the cave. Cut some poor pictures of a tufted

titmouse eviscerating a dead bat. Red tail awaited our departure.

Some fresh tracks, plenty of bats flying as we first arrived.



Inside was horrendous. Bats stuck into icicles in positions that I

have only seen in cheap horror movies. Literally thousands of dead

bats on the ground and more every minute. Flying bats seemed as if

wings were freezing and they lost ability to fly. Then somersaulted

down the slope into a pile of dead bats. If you are planning on

collecting carcasses, you might consider a couple wheelbarrows.


End of quote.
I'd suggest that if you find a similar scene, anywhere in your travels, you bag your gear until you can clean it thoroughly, and contact your state wildlife officials, to help us all try to get a handle on this situation.
minerPete

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Illigitimi non carborundum

That is terrible. This truly is like a "black plague" for bats. We can only hope enough bats will remain resistant to it. But since bats reproduce so slowly, about one offspring per year, it will certainly take a long time to regain their numbers. As we learned first hand (atleast in NY state), mines that do not have an up-to-date bat count cannot be saved from being completely sealed shut. We lost thousands of bats when Croton Magnetic Mine was sealed and the state was powerless to do anything as it had no record of endangered bats or a recent bat count. Now that the numbers of bats are dwindling, I wonder what standards will be used to protect former and potential hibernaculums. I wonder if the reason it is afflicting so many bats is due to lack of genetic diversity.

On a related note, this seems to be the case with the tasmanian devil population. There is a disease spreading across the species largely due to the lack of differences in the gene pool. The disease causes facial tumors, is incredibly contagious, and leads to death. Hopefully the more we can learn about White Nose Syndrome and how it spreads, we can better learn how to protect the bats as well as other species that could be largely wiped out.

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"If you thought old, abandoned mines were only in the west, then you haven't been to IronMiners.com!"

Yeah this is really very sad. Every report I read seems more and more grim on this. Carbondale had a huge bat population there, that's terrible that the disease made it's way down there. Thousands of bats were there..

It would be great if there was a way to help out, but it doesn't seem like there is anything that can be done at this point. Still not enough known about this disease..

Miner Greg

Havn't heard of anything here yet but--the effects are going to be something.

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