How a fungal disease has killed over 90% of some North American bat species and what conservation responses are being developed.
White-nose syndrome causes a distinctly terrible form of death for affected bats. The fungal infection on their skin disrupts the physiological processes of hibernation, causing bats to repeatedly arouse from torpor during winter when no food is available. Bats that arouse burn through their fat stores in days, become dehydrated and emaciated, and emerge from caves in the middle of winter where they starve. This is an acute welfare crisis for millions of individual animals as well as an ecological catastrophe for species whose pest-control services are valued at billions of dollars annually. Urgency is warranted: some species may go extinct before effective treatments are scaled.