Clarification of Trout Cave Bat
Findings
In late April, 2008, several reports in the popular presss stated that
WNS may have been found in Trout Cave in Pendleton County, WV.
Craig Stihler (of the WVDNR) and Barbara Douglas (of the
USFWS) sent a message to to the caving community clarifying what had
been found in the cave. That message is reproduced below with
their permission.
April 29,
2008
Hi all:
As many of you are aware, there were articles in a number of papers
today about dead bats with potential White Nose Syndrome being found in
Trout Cave, West Virginia. Some of the facts in those
articles got a little confused and we would like to correct the record.
There were no dead bats. Two live bats were found with a
small amount of fungus - one on the ear and the other on the
forearm. The fungus would not have been noticeable (actually
we are not sure it was a fungus) if we weren't looking so closely at
the bats in the cave. One bat was discovered only because
Craig took a digital photo of the bat and zoomed in to get a close look
at the animal.
Just to be safe, these two bats were collected and submitted them to a
lab that has worked on white nose syndrome. These bats were
within the normal weight range for bats this time of year although
somewhat on the low end. When we did some work over 10 years
ago - before anyone heard of white nose syndrome - we had data for bats
that were considerably lighter at this time of the year. The lab
confirmed that one bat had little body fat; the other had a little
more. We need to remember that this was in April at the end of the
hibernation period so that is not surprising. In New York,
where white nose syndrome has been documented, the bats were at similar
weights in January.
We are dealing with a lot of unknowns. Given that the cause
of white nose remains unknown, there is no way the lab can confirm
whether or not these bats are affected by white nose. Given
that biologists have rarely examined bats closely in hibernacula in
April, we don't know what level of fungus is normal and to be
expected. We have seen bats this winter with white fungus
that turned out to be fungus growing on a pellet of guano that was
stuck to the bat.
So fungus on a bat does not necessarily mean the fungus is white nose.
The bats in Trout Cave certainly did not exhibit the classic symptoms
of white nose syndrome and there was no sign of any of the abnormal
behaviors that have been observed at sites with White Nose (bats
roosting near the entrance of the cave, bats too weak to respond to
disturbance - the two bats we handled acted normally, Indiana bats were
starting to move - no bats flying out of the cave during
daylight).
At this time white nose syndrome has not been confirmed in WV and we
have no good evidence that it is here. It is not time to
panic and folks certainly shouldn't let up on efforts to keep it out of
WV (clean and disinfect gear, etc). Biologists in the
Northeast are planning to do additional work next fall and winter to
try to figure out where this problem occurs. We are also
continuing to work with labs throughout the country to identify the
cause of white nose syndrome.
We are not aware of any evidence of white nose in southern WV and would
like to learn more about what is being referred to in the previous
email posted to this list. [The
list is the Virginia Region of the NSS e-mail list.]
We appreciate everyone's continued cooperation and support on this
issue.
Thanks.
Craig Stihler
WV Division of Natural Resources
Barb Douglas
US Fish and Wildlife Service
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last updated or verified on May 1, 2008