Published: May 10, 2008 11:56 pm            

JOE GORDEN | Things aren’t always what they seem

It appeared that the worst had happened last week when Pittsburgh’s biggest newspaper reported that a Uniontown cave was closed because bats there had been found with a deadly fungus and officials feared visitors would spread the disease to other colonies.

The Associated Press picked up on the story, and The Dilenschneider Group, a New York public relations firm, distributed an e-mail message offering the opportunity for reporters to talk to an expert on the ailment.

But, then the Pennsylvania Game Commission stepped in with a “not so fast,” pointing out that the cave closure was just standard procedure to protect hibernating bats and that, while investigations were in progress, no cases of the disease in question – white nose syndrome (WNS) – had yet been found here.

Thursday’s release of results from the game commission’s testing confirmed that the reports had jumped the gun, but the surveys did reveal some ominous information.

“We found fungus on bats’ ears and wings – similar to that on bats afflicted with WNS in Vermont and New York – at sites in Fayette, Luzerne and Blair counties,” said Greg Turner, one of the biologists conducting the surveys. “One of the sites, Hartman Mine at Canoe Creek State Park in Blair County, is the state’s largest hibernaculum for Indiana bats, a federally endangered species.”

The disease got its name from the fact that affected bats bear rings of white fungus on their snouts. It is a frightening affliction with devastating impact, wiping out entire hibernating colonies in New York, Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut during the past winter. The few bats that weren’t found dead inside caves were found, emaciated and foundering, on the ground outside.

Fortunately, the game commission has been conducting bat research for years and had its own well-versed biologists to turn to. Turner, who has conducted bat census at several Somerset County sites, is one.

Officials don’t have any idea what causes the disease or how it spreads, but at least they know its symptoms, which gives them an idea what to look for as they go from one known bat habitat to another across the state.

With research on the disease just beginning and confirmed cases on the doorstep of Pennsylvania’s 4,000 bat-inhabited mines and 1,000 caves, Turner has a lot of work ahead of him.

“The good news is no dead bats have been found to date in Pennsylvania, and the bats we captured in mist nets leaving hibernacula were not grossly underweight, a noticeable condition observed in many bats affected with WNS,” Turner said. “But with WNS surfacing only 11 miles away from our New York border, it now seems that it might just be a matter of time. That’s why the game commission is gearing up to try to identify the progression of WNS and shed further light on how this mysterious disorder kills bats.”

Information: www.pgc.state.pa.us., www.fws.gov/northeast/white_nose.html.



Joe Gorden is the outdoors writer for The Tribune-Democrat.

        

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