White-nose syndrome is devastating North American bat populations. This fungal disease causes profound individual suffering and threatens multiple species with extinction.
White-nose syndrome causes profound suffering in individual bats. The fungus disrupts thermoregulation during hibernation, causing bats to rouse repeatedly at enormous energetic cost. Affected bats become severely emaciated, flying in daylight in winter searching for non-existent insects. Death from starvation and exhaustion follows. Research into probiotic treatments, volatile compounds and UV light therapies offers hope for population-level management. Individual bat welfare during disease progression cannot be improved at scale, but supporting research that addresses the population-level crisis is the most effective welfare action.