WDNR -- For the second year in a row, a statewide survey of more than 100 known bat wintering sites has found no signs of a deadly bat disease -- white-nose syndrome -- that has killed upwards of 6.7 million bats in the Eastern United States and Canada. "We're extremely pleased to announce that neither the fungus nor the disease of white-nose syndrome was found in Wisconsin," says David Redell, a Department of Natural Resources bat ecologist. "It's a welcome relief in Wisconsin and in our neighboring states because so many of their bats winter here and any disease in our hibernacula could have far-reaching effects."
Bat surveyDNR bat surveillance crew members pass a cluster of hibernating big brown bats during cave searches in winter 2012.
WDNR PhotoBats are voracious insect eaters, helping keep crop and forest pests and mosquitoes in check. A recent national study estimated the insect-eating services that bats provide between $658 million to $1.5 billion alone for Wisconsin's agricultural industry.
Redell believes that the arrival of the white-nose syndrome in Wisconsin is still imminent, given that white-nose syndrome was detected along the Mississippi River corridor, but that the delay has provided the "great benefit of time." "The more time we have for research to understand how this disease spreads throughout populations of bats, the better able we can assess options that may possibly slow down the arrival and devastating effects of the disease," Redell says. Please read on at:
http://dnr.wi.gov/news/DNRNews_article_Lookup.asp?id=2136
Bat surveyDNR bat surveillance crew members pass a cluster of hibernating big brown bats during cave searches in winter 2012.
WDNR PhotoBats are voracious insect eaters, helping keep crop and forest pests and mosquitoes in check. A recent national study estimated the insect-eating services that bats provide between $658 million to $1.5 billion alone for Wisconsin's agricultural industry.
Redell believes that the arrival of the white-nose syndrome in Wisconsin is still imminent, given that white-nose syndrome was detected along the Mississippi River corridor, but that the delay has provided the "great benefit of time." "The more time we have for research to understand how this disease spreads throughout populations of bats, the better able we can assess options that may possibly slow down the arrival and devastating effects of the disease," Redell says. Please read on at:
http://dnr.wi.gov/news/DNRNews_article_Lookup.asp?id=2136
