Mysterious disease kills bats

By Stacey Chase from the Globe Magazine

At least 1 million bats have died in the past three years from a mysterious disease called white-nose syndrome, posing serious questions for our environment. One Boston University biologist is leading the hunt for answers.

Thomas Kunz, a biology professor and director of the Center for Ecology and Conservation at Boston University, shows the remains of several little brown bats found on the floor of Aeolus Cave in southern Vermont. The animals were killed by white-nose syndrome, which has decimated bat populations in New York and spread across the Northeast and into South Atlantic States. Preeminent scientists are calling the deaths the most precipitous decline of North American wildlife in human history.

At least 1 million bats have died in the past three years from a mysterious disease called white-nose syndrome, posing serious questions for our environment. One Boston University biologist is leading the hunt for answers. Thomas Kunz, a biology professor and director of the Center for Ecology and Conservation at Boston University, shows the remains of several little brown bats found on the floor of Aeolus Cave in southern Vermont. The animals were killed by white-nose syndrome, which has decimated bat populations in New York and spread across the Northeast and into South Atlantic States. Preeminent scientists are calling the deaths the most precipitous decline of North American wildlife in human history.
Photograph by Jordan Silverman