threatens some bat species with extinction, it’s an understandable and possibly necessary tactic. But it does come with a price: disconnecting Americans from a vital part of their natural heritage.

“I love taking Boy Scouts into caves, showing them what’s underground. Most say, ‘I’m going to go play video games.’ But a few say, ‘I want more of this. I want to be a scientist.’ Where does that interest come from in the next generation, if we close the caves?” said Peter Youngbaer, White Nose Syndrome liaison for the National Speleological Society.

White Nose Syndrome, named for distinctive growths of Geomyces destructans fungus on the noses of afflicted bats, has spread to caves in 14 eastern states, along with Ontario and Quebec, since being identified in upstate New York just four years ago.

At least six cave-dwelling bat species are vulnerable to the fungus. It eats through their wings and wakes them from winter hibernation, depleting fat reserves needed to survive until spring. Some researchers say that one million bats is a small fraction of the actual toll, which occurs underground and out of sight.

Where the carnage has been measured, it’s immense. At Vermont’s Aeolus Cave, once home to 300,000 bats, barely one-tenth are left. It took two years for scavengers to carry away the carcasses. That scenario is repeating itself up and down the eastern U.S., and could well happen across the country.

To prevent Geomyces spores from being carried between caves on visitors’ shoes and clothing, the United States Forest Service has closed all its caves — with bats, and without — in the eastern and southern U.S., along with the Rocky Mountains and much of the Great Plains. Its other regions may follow suit. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has also declared caves in national wildlife refuges to be off-limits.

The Bureau of Land Management, which controls much of the non-forested public land in the western U.S., has taken a case-by-case approach, closing only those caves and abandoned mines that appear to be prime G. destructans habitat. However, a federal White Nose Syndrome management plan now being drafted could ultimately make blanket closings a nationwide reality.

“It will hopefully gain us more time to allow for research to come up with some kind of treatment, with something that we can do,” said Jeremy Coleman, White-Nose Syndrome coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “We don’t have a lot of time. To gain just one or two years may ultimately be nothing, or it could be the critical element that allows us to preserve species that are going extinct.”

The organized caving community has bristled at the restrictions, insisting that they follow thorough decontamination protocols and present far less of a disease-spreading risk than the bats themselves.

The initial outbreak was likely caused caused by a tourist who carried G. destructans from Europe, where bats seem resistant to the disease. After that, however, few infections have been linked to human transmission. Had public caves been closed, the course of the epidemic may not have been different.

“It would be a shame for cavers and those responsible for managing and studying caves to lose touch with caves and their environments because of simplistic and ineffective management strategies,” said National Speleological Society president Cheryl Jones.

Cavers say the benefits of excluding people are far outweighed by losses. They’re usually avid conservationists, and often partner with state wildlife agencies, helping them gather data and monitor caves.

In many cases, “cavers have found evidence of White Nose Syndrome, and been the sentinels” for wildlife managers, said Northern Kentucky University microbiologist Hazel Barton, an avid spelunker who studies the ecology of G. destructans. “A lot of the funding that paid for the original White Nose Syndrome research came from the caving community.”

“The partnerships with cavers are critical. I agree 100 percent,” said Coleman. But “our efforts are designed to try to prevent spread in a short-term window.”

For now, this debate has involved access to caves on public lands, leaving privately-owned caves exempt. But that may change. In Wisconsin, where White Nose Syndrome has not yet appeared, wildlife managers want to get a jump on the disease by declaring G. destructans an invasive species, and four species of bats threatened.

Those designations would give wildlife agencies access to new sources of funds. They would also “give police power to the agencies to go onto private land to prevent damage to these newly-named threatened species,” said Youngbaer. “We fear that private landowners will be fearful of allowing even inadvertent access to caves, and thus move to seal caves shut. They’ll be causing more damage to the bats that they’re ostensibly trying to protect.”

In New York, the Ground Zero of White Nose Syndrome, state biologist Carl Herzog said that threatened or endangered listings are deserved. “There is no reason to think that Wisconsin, Michigan or Minnesota will fare better than New York. It’s probably just a matter of time,” he said.

But as both public and private caves are shut, said Youngbaer, people lose access to a world of extraordinary geological formations and biological adaptations. “What knowledge do we lose, the beauty of these caves notwithstanding? We have the potential to lose touch with all this,” he said.

“We just need time to figure this out,” said Vermont state biologist Scott Darling. “There will be a time when the caves and mines are open again. But we can’t take that risk at a time when we’re seeing the largest decline of mammalian species in a very long time on Earth.”

Images: 1 & 4) Mammoth Cave, Kentucky./Peter Rivera, Flickr. 2) Little brown bats with White Nose Syndrome./Al Hicks, New York Department of Environmental Conservation. 3) Cathedral Caverns, Alabama./Fang Guo, Flickr. Sidebar: Little brown bat./M.A. Tuttle, Bat Conservation International.

See Also:

• Cave Divers Risk Their Lives to Explore the Underworld
• America’s Most Common Bat Headed for Eastern Extinction
• Blind Fish Learn to See
• Infrared Video: 500000 Bats Emerge From Cave

Brandon’s Twitter stream and reportorial outtakes; Wired Science on Twitter.

Authors: Brandon Keim

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