White nose syndrome found in area bats

The path to Trout Cave is colored with notices of no trespassing and warnings of the discovery of a fungus called White Nose Syndrome in the bats that hibernate in the cave. The fungus irritates the skin causing the bats to scratch. The energy used to scratch depletes their winter fat stores. Needing food, the bats awake from hibernation before insects are out and die of starvation. Warning signs along the U.S. 220 between Monterey and Franklin advise people to stay out of the recently closed caves and off the hillside where dead bats have been found. Discovered in 2006 in Albany, New York, a fungus responsible for White Nose Syndrome has killed more than 100,000 bats in six states as it spreads south. Originally thought to be transmitted by bat to bat contact, the fungus is now suspected to be also carried from cave to cave by cavers as well. (Recorder photo by Geoff Cox) WILLIAMSVILLE — A fungus responsible for the deaths of more than 100,000 bats on the East Coast was found last Wednesday, Feb. 25, on bats in Breathing Cave near the Highland/Bath border.

A couple of healthy eastern pipistrelle bats huddle together last fall in Aqua Cave in Highland County near Williamsville. On Wednesday, Feb. 25, three dead pipistrelles with White Nose Syndrome were found in neighboring Breathing Cave. Bats with WNS appear to have white powder around the nose and on the wing membrane. White Nose has not been observed yet at Aqua and cavers are asked to voluntarily put a "pause" on expeditions until more is known about the fungus. (Recorder file photo) Highland caver and Monterey resident Rick Lambert was the guide for two Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation biologists searching for signs of the fungus on bats typically hibernating this time of year in the cave near Williamsville. They found three dead pipistrelle bats and10 to 15 percent of the pipistrelles showing symptoms of what is becoming a widespread bat plague.

Other species of bats in the cave appeared normal although a few were active and awake.

After the find, Breathing Cave was closed, and notice signs were posted.

"We reported what we saw and recommended the landowner close it and she did," Lambert said.

A report by the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources released just two days earlier on Monday, Feb. 23, confirmed that bats from a cave in Pendleton County suffered from a condition called white nose syndrome.

All three of the species submitted to the U.S Geological Survey National Wildlife Health Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin by the WVDNR — the eastern pipistrelle, little brown, and northern-long eared bats — tested positive. At the time, it was stated that the sites were the southernmost where the syndrome had been found in the U.S.

First noticed in Albany, N.Y., during the late winter-early spring of 2007, the syndrome has been linked to a fungus of the genus Geomyces. Geomyces are a naturally occurring fungus that live in cold soils.

Fungi feed on decaying plant and animal matter; consequently most are parasitic. Generally they live in harmony on a host and outbreaks are uncommon unless the host has a weakened immune system. The fungus observed on the bats' skin appears white, hence the name, and causes the hibernating bats to scratch.

Caver Rick Lambert accompanied Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation biologists into Breathing Cave on the Highland-Bath border. The group found three dead bats and observed the early stages of White Nose Syndrome in the bats hibernating there. (Recorder file photo) The energy used from scratching depletes a bat's fat reserves needed for hibernation. Hungry, the bats awake from hibernation early, and with no insects to eat in late winter, die of starvation.

Some biologists studying bat hibernaculum mines and caves in the Northeast are reporting death rates at affected sites at near 100 percent.

The fungus does not directly kill the bats and is not thought to be harmful to people.

Researchers are unsure if the fungus is a new species recently introduced into the bat environment or whether the bats that contract it are sick already, a combination of both, or unrelated.

Because white nose syndrome is in the developing stages, the first priority is to contain the outbreak. Since it has spread so quickly, the previous scientific conclusion of bat-to-bat transmittal has been adjusted to include humans and other animals as carriers of the fungus either in spores or dirt from one cave to another. Initially officials closed affected caves in the Northeast and recommended a decontamination process for people who had been in those caves.

The entrance to Breathing Cave near Williamsville. The cave has been closed by the landowner after the discovery of WNS last Wednesday. (Photo courtesy Rick Lambert) Those methods may not have been enough.

Bats can live up to 30 years and are not known to travel distances of more than 300 miles; most stay around the same home caves their whole life.

Since Pendleton County is well over 300 miles from general area of occurrence, it is possible that people have helped the fungus move from New York to Virginia in two years.

"The last five caves suspected of having it (in the area) are all recreational caves," Lambert said.

Trout Cave is a popular recreational cave just north of the Highland border with Pendleton County, W.Va. The cave was suspected to have signs of WNS last spring and confirmation of the fungus was made official last Monday by the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources. (Recorder photo by Geoff Cox) Many cave owners keep visitor records in cave liability logs. According to Lambert, a team from New York has been backtracked from Trout Cave (a white nose syndrome-positive cave) in Pendleton. The landowner at Breathing Cave gave Lambert the logbook and he has been contacting visitors the cave had since last fall.

"Unless they were connected to the NSS (National Spelunking Society) or something like that they'd never heard about (the syndrome) until I called," he said.

The containment tactics of closing caves and decontamination are still the only way known to prevent humans from spreading the fungus further. They are still the plans of action used.

"One thing I'm sure of is isolation and decontamination is working right now," Lambert said.

In the early knowledge of white nose syndrome, speculative similarities from colony collapse in bees to chytridiomycosis (a deadly skin disease) in amphibians have been made. It has also been noted that the syndrome is occurring in the same areas that experienced the West Nile Virus transmitted by mosquitoes in the late 1990s. So far, no scientific connections have been made or made public.

Bats are considered important for insect control and are partially responsible for plant pollination and seed distribution. Is it possible that insect control techniques are also killing natural insect predators?

"Wouldn't that be ironic?" Lambert said.

A caver his whole life, descended from a family of cavers, Lambert's concerns are widely held.

"Right after we found it, I cried," he said. "Initially, it seemed like the end of the world ... But then we sat down and looked at the facts. We can't stop bats from spreading it, but we can help keep the humans from spreading it.

"Recreational caving, as we know it, is over," he said making clear that tourist caves like Endless Caverns and Luray Caverns would probably not be affected or closed since bats generally steer clear of those.

Lambert acknowledged that his main hobby and pastime of caving will likely be restricted but is more concerned with the fate of the bats.

A large population of threatened and endangered bats as well as many stable bat colonies live in this area, including the one of the largest hibernacula on the east coast, Hellhole Cave, in Pendleton. A reported 200,000 common bats and 20,000 threatened or endangered bats live and hibernate there, a mere 12 miles from Highland's northern border and close to a confirmed site at Trout Cave.

Lambert's family owns 17 caves in Pendleton County, and has closed the one that serves as a home to bats since last spring. They are not willing to take the chance of losing what amounts to a 30-year relationship with the brood of 300 bats that live there.

"It's killing a lot of bats," Lambert said. "Probably any weak (ones) will die. It won't be in every cave. It won't kill every bat. It won't kill every species (of bat)," he added.

For more information on white nose syndrome, visit the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries website at www.dgif. virginia.gov.