Mike James
The Independent
OLIVE HILL —
The mysterious disease that has been killing bats in the eastern United States has not been identified in any Kentucky caves, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen, a biologist said Thursday.
“There are thousands of caves in Kentucky with bats, so the chances are good that it is there,” said Jim Kennedy, a cave and mine resource specialist with Bat Conservation International.
Kennedy was talking about white-nose syndrome, a condition named for the white fungus the grows on the muzzles of bats.
Bats afflicted with the condition tend to wake up from hibernation and leave the cave looking for food. Since there are no insects — the primary food source for bats — in the winter, the bats die.
First identified in upstate New York, white-nose syndrome has been killing bats from New England to Tennessee and as far west as Oklahoma.
When it does hit, the condition often results in the death of 95 percent of hibernating bats, Kennedy said. To date, at least a million bats have died because of the syndrome.
Although the syndrome hasn’t been found in Kentucky, state park officials aren’t taking any chances at Carter Caves. All caves on the grounds are closed for the time being except for guided tours through X Cave and Cascade Cave.
The condition frustrates scientists because they don’t know for sure whether the fungus causes it, Kennedy said. Typically, the condition is spotted one winter, bats die in large numbers the second winter, and by the third winter virtually no bats are left.
The importance of bats should not be underestimated, Kennedy said. They are major predators of night-flying insects, like mosquitoes and crop pests.
Without bats serving as free pest control, crops would be decimated, forests defoliated and people constantly scratching mosquito bites.
“Without bats, there would be outbreaks of disease and widespread ecological changes,” Kennedy said.
MIKE JAMES can be reached at mjames@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2652.
