Bats provide essential ecosystem services including insect control valued at billions of dollars annually. White-nose syndrome has killed over 90% of some North American bat species, representing a catastrophic wildlife welfare and ecological crisis.
White-nose syndrome causes a particularly prolonged and distressing form of death for affected bats. Fungal irritation of wing membranes and muzzle causes bats to rouse repeatedly from hibernation, burning fat reserves needed to survive winter. Affected bats literally crawl out of caves in winter in desperate search for food, dying of starvation and exposure. The welfare scale of this crisis — millions of individual animals experiencing prolonged suffering and death — rivals any other wildlife disease event in recent history. Conservation interventions that slow the spread of the fungus, support bat immune function, or accelerate treatment development serve both the welfare of individual bats and the ecological and economic functions their populations provide.