History

• The first bats discovered with white-nose syndrome were a colony in Albany, New York in 2006. The discoverer was a cave explorer or spelunker who decided to photograph the dying bats. WNS received its official name in January of 2007. Since then, it has spread to Canada, all across the American Northeast down to Virginia and across the west to Oklahoma. USA Today estimates that over one million bats have been killed by WNS since 2006.
  
  

Symptoms

• Bats suffering from WNS often have a distinctive white fungus growing all around their mouths and noses, although the fungus can sometimes spread to other parts of the bodies, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Instead of hibernating and saving their energies for spring, when their food is available, bats with WNS fly about and look for food in winter. The species of fungus causing WNS is called Geomyces destructans.
  
  

Significance

• Bats are small mammals with little body fat. In order to survive the winter, bat colonies huddle together for warmth and hibernate all winter. For some unknown reason, bats with white nose syndrome do not hibernate. The fungus alone does not kill the bats. What kills the bats is starvation as they cannot find any insects to feed on during the winter.
  
  

Mortality Rate

• Any bat that catches white-nose syndrome will die; there is no cure. Efforts to nurse sick bats back to health have all failed. In some bat species in North America, 90 percent have been killed off by WNS, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. These species include the Ozark big-eared bat, the Virginia big-eared bat and the Indiana bat. Because it is unknown if people could spread fungal spores from sick bat colonies to healthy bat colonies, many caves known to hold bat colonies have been closed to the general public.
  
  

Speculation

• As of 2010, it is unknown what causes WNS. One theory put forth by the Organization of Bat Conservation is that bats are becoming less resistant to commercial pesticides. This is one of the many theories behind the cause of bee colony collapse disorder, which has decimated most species of honey bees around the world, according to the USDA. Both bats and bees live in colonies and hibernate during the winter.