AP
— MORGANTOWN (AP) — An expedition into Hellhole cave in Pendleton County last month revealed that bats in one of the largest and most important bat hibernation caves in the state are infected with white-nose syndrome. The cave has been off limits to people for a few years, and now, with the recent discovery that some bats in Hellhole Cave have white-nose syndrome, it’s part of a field study into the deadly disease. West Virginia Division of Natural Resources biologist Craig Stihler has a lead role in tracking and studying white-nose syndrome in West Virginia. “What we’ve seen is that the most hard hit bats are probably the little brown bat; it’s our most common bat in the state. They tend to hibernate in areas that are fairly damp and the fungus seems to grow very well there,” said Stihler. “We’ve had a constant stream of bats just flying out of the cave during the day, during snow, so they’re obviously very distressed and fleeing the site,” he added. Stihler says the disease was probably initially transmitted to West Virginia bats by a caver. It’s believed that the disease can live on cavers’ equipment. But Stihler thinks the bats have spread it to other caves in the state. “Last year we were estimating we had maybe 200 to 300 bats that have died. When we were at Hellhole this year we were seeing a stream of up to 40 bats an hour just leaving the cave, flying out. I’m sure most of those bats just died on the landscape,” said Stihler. Peter Youngbaer was among a group of cavers and biologists who went into Hellhole Cave last month to conduct a bat survey. Youngbaer is the white-nose syndrome liaison for the National Speleological Society. He says some good news to come out of the survey is that the endangered Virginia Big Eared bats do not appear to have white-nose syndrome. “Half the known population in the world of that species lives in Hellhole, so we were terrified that if we saw this in the Virginia Big Eared bat, the species might be gone,” said Youngbaer. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is trying to establish a breeding colony for the Virginia Big Eared bats in case the disease infects the population. Seth Perlman, who lives in New York, accompanied Youngbaer into Hellhole Cave. He hopes white-nose syndrome does not have the same effect in West Virginia that it’s had in the North East. “We’ve seen up to 90 percent mortality in some of the bats and it’s manifested in caves where there are just piles of dead bats,” Perlman said. Perlman says not being able to cave in certain areas where white-nose syndrome is present or could possibly be spread is a small price to pay to try to save bats from this disease which eventually causes them to starve to death. “I think it would be selfish of us who enjoy caving as a recreation to feel like we’ve gotten the short end of the stick, because certainly we’re not dying off in mass numbers like the bats are and knowing that the bats are an important part of the ecosystem.” Bats help keep the number of insects down, so Stihler says it will be interesting to see what the insect population is like this summer where white-nose syndrome has been found. There is no cure or treatment for white-nose syndrome. Stihler says anyone who sees a number of bats flying around in the daytime this winter should contact the DNR.
