I love bats — they’re almost as glamorous as squid. So I am greatly dismayed to learn that there is a virulent bat illness spreading out of the northeast US, a serious die-off that has as one of its symptoms a fungal growth that has led to calling it “white nose syndrome”. Bats are behaving oddly, starving to death, and dropping dead.
Earlier I was complaining about the limited imaginations of television executives, who do such a poor job of translating science to the screen. Here’s a story full of drama and tragedy, with photogenic stars (the bats!) and scientists doing real, serious investigative work to solve a mystery. Wouldn’t that make for great television if done well?
PZ, the tv execs, & most of their public, are batty. But not in the right way – look at the tv schedules – almost unadulterated crap.
Isn’t it obvious what’s killing the bats? It’s the Joker!
(Sorry, the new Dark Knight trailer just came out)
First the bees, not the bats… Dear God! It must be a serial killer!
I actually had one of these little buggers die in the entry to my office building. Bats freak me out (especially when they’re flying around my apartment), but mosquitoes are worse.
Plus, it really sucks to watch the little buggers dying in front of you. (Our facilities folks said there have been a lot of them dying at various locations around campus.)
and scientists doing real, serious investigative work
anybody run across any recent articles relating?
I know a bunch of people who had “white nose syndrome” way back in the 80’s.
In all seriousness, however, this is not a good thing at all. Bats eat more mosquitoes than I can comprehend, and any creature that eats mosquitoes is definitely one of my personal best friends.
Hopefully, someone can figure this out. I’d hate to lose the bats.
anybody run across any recent articles relating?
The Globe article mentions some ongoing research with regard to such things as hibernation, arousal (waking up?), and immunity. I kind of wonder, though, if this is so recent that not much has made it very far through peer review yet. It’s only been about a year since the observations of mass die-offs have occurred.
I dunno if others sent it as well, but I forwarded this story to PZ. Our facilities folks were like, “What’s going on with all the dead bats?”
Nobody seems to have any idea.
This is most horrible news, I have always loved bats since my childhood, and owe a huge debt to their insectivory. I spend a lot of time outside so I’ll keep my eyes peeled for evidence of die-offs.
This would make good television, however- the fact that these researchers are rapelling into mines, setting up traps in isolated areas, is very Indiana Jones-y.
Bats? A mysterious Illness?
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Legend)
I’m alarmed to see this problem spreading throughout New England. It’s been a huge story here in Vermont for many months; I didn’t realize it was growing.
Like Jeff, I don’t want them flying around in my house (oh, the screaming fit I threw when one came down the chimney and out the fireplace years ago), but they really are important. And quite aside from the bugs and pests they eat, they are just unutterably cool critters. There are few examples of the odd beauty and “genius” of evolution better than a mouse* with stretched-skin wings and a sophisticated sonar navigation system. It would be just terrible to see species of them go extinct.
Josh
*Yes, I know they’re not actually mice with wings stuck on them.
Unfortunately, I don’t think bats and/or squid are effective poster boys for science :-(
There’re each quite cool and interesting from a biological perspective, but make most others uncomfortable … perhaps due to seamonster and dracula mythology :-(
oh, the screaming fit I threw when one came down the chimney and out the fireplace years ago
OK, my freakiest bat moment was a few years ago when I was teaching in Minnesota. I had returned home from a night out dancing in Minneapolis, so it was probably around 3:30 or so when I got into my apartment. Both cats come trotting out of the kitchen to great me, not in a thrilled, “Daddy’s home!” sort of way, but in the bored, “dad’s home” sort of way. As I enter, whoosh something flies from the kitchen through the living room into my office (ah, those times when I was living in more than one room). I notice it’s a bat, and go to get my tennis racket, all the while looking around and crouching, ducking whenever it flies in the vacinity. Have I mentioned that bats squick me out?
So, I end up between the living room and office, tennis racket and bucket in hand, freaking the fuck out. The cats, however, DON’T. EVEN. NOTICE. “Bat? What bat? When do we eat?”
“Aren’t you little fools supposed to love and chase flying things?”
I finally smack the bat with my tennis racket as it’s flying past–probably about the fourth or fifth pass, all of which had me ducking and vainly shoving the racket in the air. I scoop the stunned critter into the bucket, and put the occupied bucket on the back porch.
It was gone in the morning.
I hate bats….but I hate mosquitoes more so I hope folks can figure this out.
“Wouldn’t that make for great television if done well?”
Yes, it would. Now, if only there was any great television or if there was any television was done well. Both are a rarity. Unfortunately, the vast majority of television is done only for money and must, therefore, pander to the non-thinking masses.
Everyone I know hates bats because they are ugly looking(the bats not the people. Although, in some cases…). I like bats and have plans to erect a bat house or two in my yard. I like lying quietly, in the dark, in my swimming pool at night and watching the bats at work overhead.
There’re each quite cool and interesting from a biological perspective, but make most others uncomfortable … perhaps due to seamonster and dracula mythology :-(
actually, mythbusting is a happy side effect of our business. If anything, the fact that you suggest avoidance might be due to myths supports the idea that we should make researching them all the more public.
Flying mammals which come equipped with sonar are inherently cool. If you’re not impressed by bats then you might as well give up life because there’s no hope for you.
That sounds like a pretty dull movie. Sounds like something that would appear on A&E or Discovery and cause me to turn the channel.
The science? Cool. The movie? Dull.
The science? Cool. The movie? Dull.
you post that, right after Christianjb’s post.
interesting.
I tend to side with #14 myself, but then I’m rather biased, being a behavioral ecologist and all.
:p
This wonderful organization is all about promoting bats all over the world.
http://www.batcon.org/news/news_item.asp?NewsID=354
Bats are an amazing example of evolution. Flying mouselike creatures that manage to compete with and hold their own with the other wonder fliers, the birds.
Mike O’Risal at Hyphoid Logic had a post about this a while ago with a hypothesis:
If insectivorous bats somehow lost their intestinal symbionts, [they would starve to death during hibernation]. During their active season, the bats might be just fine because they don’t rely on the digestion of chitin for nutrients. However, when they stopped actively feeding and went into hibernation, some other bacterium might proliferate in the gut. The chitin “store” that provides energy during the winter would no longer be accessible. The bats would starve in their sleep, essentially. That’s exactly what is being observed in white-nose syndrome.
Check out the post, and maybe someone could pick up that hypothesis and do a little research on it?
“Winged Freak Terrorizes ? Wait till they get a load of Me! ”
— The Joker (as portrayed by Jack Nicholson)
Seriously though, bats are interesting, even if they do
make some people shriek and cover their hair.
and they’re beneficial, eating insects that would otherwise grow too large in population. some also eat fruit that would otherwise rot, and in their own way aid in seed transport.
Handy little critters.
Well, as one creationist told me, after I pointed out the lack of purpose or rationality behind organisms and asked for an explanation for why vertebrate wings are all modified forelegs, the purpose of all life is to reproduce, and it doesn’t really matter whether the organisms are parasites or creatures we value, like bats.
God just loves the “purpose” (mindless meaningless reprduction) of the fungi, apparently, which is just too bad for bats. Too bad for us, too, since bats have been shown to be important insectivores protecting tropical crops propagated by humans.
And no, it would not make very good television. The evolution and ecology of healthy organisms makes quite good television, at least in my view, while the problems that arise (environmental damage, etc.) are rather dull. I suppose it’s because one needs to learn to appreciate what evolved before one can really appreciate the threats and losses that appear.
What might work is a very good production of bats, their evolution, their lifestyles, and their ecology, then a brief mention at the end of the problems faced by bats in the northeast, and elsewhere. And hold out some meaningful hope that the problems might be addressed, since merely hearing about problems without plausible solutions, puts people off.
Glen Davidson
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
this is very worrisome.
As things get warmer, the United States is going to be afflicted with things like dengue fever and malaria. Bats keep mosquitos down and are the first line of defense against these kind of diseases
Plus I think bats are cute and very cool.
“What might work is a very good production of bats, their evolution, their lifestyles, and their ecology, then a brief mention at the end of the problems faced by bats in the northeast, and elsewhere. And hold out some meaningful hope that the problems might be addressed, since merely hearing about problems without plausible solutions, puts people off.”
I disagree. People love mysteries, they love CSI stuff, they love all of that.
What they’d have to do is start the show off with “what’s killing the bats?” then do the general info on bats, make them sympathetic for about 1/2 of the show or maybe a little more, and then get back to the “why are they dying,” etc.
PZ – The reason why it’s never going to get any mainstream coverage is blindingly obvious if you accept the following guidance notes released by an EPA spokesperson earlier today: Bats = Vampires = Satan = Democrats, which might result in an uppity black president, so obviously anyone who feels sorry for Bats is an evil, blood-sucking Devil-worshiping Un-American traitor who can transmogrify into Keith Olbermann at will, which you clearly are!
See?
Love from London!
Maybe this’ll be the big plot twist in “The Dark Knight”!
First the bees, not the bats… Dear God! It must be a serial killer!
Ahhh, God is a serial killer! No wonder I’m an atheist.
But seriously, this depresses me. Bats are amazing creatures, and poorly misunderstood. They serve a critical place in the ecosystem. We’d be up to our necks in bugs if it weren’t for our friends the bats. Hopefully science can figure out what causing this and save our adorable little flying friends.
I’m a New England caver, and have been in contact with Susi von Oettingen from the Dept. of Fish and Wildlife to report my findings concerning this illness. I had spotted the first signs of this illness in Massachusetts caves this winter while filming bats at one of their prime hibernaculum in western MA. Since then Susi has visited many of the other caves and found bats suffer from WNS in each one. This has been going on in the Northeast since winter of 2006-07. It first appeared in NY Caves but now has been seen in MA, VT and CT caves. There has been an unbelievable amount of bats that were found dead and far from their hibernaculum this winter. When I contacted Susi last week to report a cave I visited this past month, she mentioned that they are still are not sure what is causing this illness.
Bats in New England are very gentle and cute animals. I’ve always enjoyed their company in the caves I explore. Its sad to see so many of them dying and I’m not looking forward to seeing how this will affect other things such as the insect population in New England.
~Atomic Chimp
Not to worry, I’m sure there must be hundreds of ID researchers at the Discovery Institute praying overtime to find out what is killing these poor godforsaken creatures.
Not to worry, I’m sure there must be hundreds of ID researchers at the Discovery Institute praying overtime to find out what is killing these poor godforsaken creatures.
well, there you have the ID hypothesis already presented in your post.
Ichthyic,
ID hypothesis? Oh sure, Bat Shit Insanity ;-)
If there’s a cave with 95% of the bats dead and the rest of them carrying whatever’s making them ill, wouldn’t it be a good idea to fumigate the cave so they don’t carry it to the summer roosts and spread it to the healthy population? Then when this dies down maybe the cave will be re-populated by healthy bats.
If bats freak you out, get a grated chimney pot or put some hardware cloth (wire fence with 1-cm squares) over the chimney.
FSM forbid! Those might be the bats with natural immunity that nature needs to repopulate.
While we are on the subject, I might as well blow my own horn here and tell you that I am the discoverer of the most northernly known natural bat hibernaculum in North America. No shit. It is in a wave cut cave part way down the cliff at Palisade Head overlooking Lake Superior.
(Short version of story) I found a dead bat on the ice of the lake in April below the cliff. Yes, you can walk on the lakes here in April. This is supposed to be inspirational because I am not a degreed professional scientist. I was working as an environmental educator at the time, and I realized the significance of the find and contacted the U of M which resulted in an associate professor being winched down the side of the cliff and into the cave where she discovered 2 species of bats in hibernation.
nice job.
good to see there are amateur biologists who aren’t birders!
Lots of information on this at http://www.caves.org/grotto/dcg/white-nose.html.
Reminds me of the facial cancer afflicting he Tassie Devils at the moment. Grave fears for their future too.
And speaking of bats one of the best experiences in Sydney, Oz, is the nightly mass fly-out of the flying foxes from the parks and gardens in central Sydney. The flying foxes are large bats with a wingspan of around one metre. Looks fantastic as the bats stream out the parks in their thousands.
If you ever want the most fascinating of outdoor experiences hike the Chisos Mountains in Big Bend NP. I was hiking there a few years back. To avoid the heat I started climbing Mt Franklin around 04:00. Near the top the bats are just flying all around, starting to return to their dens. A few minutes afterward the birds appear. It was a unique auditory experience, hearing the sound of air rushing by skin then hearing the air rushing by feathers. That experience alone places it as one of my favorite hikes, and that saying a lot.
BTW – the french word for “bat” is “souris en cuir” or leather mouse.
The Sydney flying foxes are cool! I didn’t get to see them up close, but I was hanging around the opera house at dusk and I thought hey, those look like bats… but they’re huge.
The botanic gardens are right by the opera house, which is right by main ferry terminal, the harbour bridge, the Rocks, just beside Darling harbour, the Chinese garden, aquarium, powerhouse museum… One of the things I really liked about Sydney was that you could pretty much stand at one tourist spot and look around and point at all the rest, all within walking distance or a quick ferry ride.
Josh in #10 has surely heard the Roethke poem:
But when he brushes up against a screen,
We are afraid of what our eyes have seen:
For something is amiss or out of place
When mice with wings can wear a human face.
The rest of the poem.
Fledermeeses are teh c00000000000000l! I think I was about 5 the first time I saw one. I was at my grandparents’ house one evening and just happened to be looking up when a bat flew through the room. No one else saw it, and it took me a days or so to realize what it was. And of course no one believed me.
I could easily see PBS’s “Nature” series running an episode on bats and WNS — their show about bees and Colony Collapse Disorder was fascinating. But what do I know? I’m a Geek!
Several years ago we were at a BBQ the boss held in the Scottish countryside. It was hot outside (don’t snigger at the back there, it WAS summer), so I went inside out of the sun and in the lounge noticed a black thing moving on the floor. Your visual system tries initially intepret put novel things as similar ones and my first thought was it was a large spider. But it was too large for Scotland and didn’t move at all right for a spider. It was a pipistrelle, our smallest bat, that must have come down the chimney.
The boss had two large dogs so it was important to remove the cowrin timorous beastie before it became a morsel of dogfood. Since I was the mouse man in a lab of chicken and fish people it fell to me to deal with it. So borrowing some gloves I scooped the little guy up and cupping it in the dark between my hands carried it out and set it free in the garage next to the woodpile. It however had other ideas and flew up into the space between the up and over garage door where it was dark. So we let it be and it must have flown out at dusk.
I like bats and don’t see why they freak people out, one flew into my back garden after small flying things around the compost heap year before last. I considered myself well and truly honoured and am only sorry he hasn’t been noticeably back.
May you and yours be screeched at in the ultrasonice first.
It’s sad to see bats join bees and salmon just within the last year or two. Coincidence?
http://bjoern.brembs.net/news.php?item.361
Coincidence?
my first response was to say “yes”, having looked at all three issues, but one could make a case for at least two of them that localized shifts in prey availability have potentially a lot to do with it (in the bats’ case, lowering their overall body condition, which could lead to increased susceptibility to an opportunistic infection like a fungus). Moreover, those shifts in prey availability might be attributable to climate shifts causing changes in breeding times of prey items, or basic primary productivity (in the case of the salmon – shifts in the timing of upwelling events).
thanks for the links to the salmon fishery decline, btw, I had missed that one, even though I used to fish those same Chinook myself once upon a time.
i spent about an hour a few years ago looking at bat houses ..i dont even have a yard! ..i live in the city …im jealous of country dwellers ……and i hate living there
Damn, damn, damn it all to heck. Bees are my #1 favorite creatures, but bats are a very close second. When we lived in East Texas, we’d lie in the pool in the evenings and watch “our” bats wheel overhead (they lived in our barn).
We’re talking about real ecodisaster here, folks. Bees and bats are some of the most important creatures in the biosystem in terms of agriculture.
Also there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth in Austin, home to the largest colony (1.5 million) of urban bats in the world. They live under the Congress Avenue bridge, which inadvertently turned out to be primo bat real estate. The Bracken bat cave just south of here has such a large quantity (20-40 MILLION) that the weather folks’ Doppler radar picks it up in the evening. Amazing and wonderful.
Leigh I am jealous. I have seen footage of both bat colonies (I’m sure David Attenborough has stood awestruck under the great cloud from the Bracken Cave) and I would love to see it. Dammit! here was me thinking that nothing would get me to deal with US immigration in the modern age…
For more information on white-nose syndrome, see the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s page http://www.fws.gov/northeast/white_nose.html
Leading experts to meet at NIMBioS workshop to discuss ways to control the spread of White Nose Syndrome in bats, which has killed more than half a million bats in the Northeast.