Mysterious Disease Decimating Bats... Which No One Is Talking About, page 1

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At least 1 million bats in the past three years have been wiped out by a puzzling, widespread disease dubbed "white-nose syndrome" in what preeminent US scientists are calling the most precipitous decline of North American wildlife in human history. If it isn't slowed or stopped, they believe bats will continue disappearing from the landscape in huge numbers and that entire species could become extinct within a decade.

"We're at the vanguard of an environmental catastrophe."

Why? Because bats are insect-eating machines, capable of consuming nearly half their body weight in insects each night. Take them out of the equation and we'll have an explosion of pests, including disease-carrying mosquitoes and agriculturally destructive beetles, moths, leafhoppers and other foes of the farmers, who may be forced to use more pesticides as a result.

This is really worrying, especially being from a place that relies upon a large population of the ugly little buggers to ward off what would surely be an intolerable onslaught of insects during the summer. You sit outside here in the warm months and the sky is just full of them, I've even collided with one on multiple occasions

I heard about this story last year some time and it sounds as though they didn't get near the funding they were looking for so a cure can be found. Hopefully some other nations will get together and raise the money, American politicians don't seem to take this sort of thing seriously.

First the bees, now the bats

reply to post by Violater1

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Hmm I didn't know bats pollinated anything to be honest. Not a big fan of the tequila, but that just goes to show that the implications of a bat die-off are a lot more far reaching than people realize.

There is also a really good thread on this topic here: www.abovetopsecret.com...

Just for reference. It is interesting how few people are talking about things like this.

This is the latest from Bat Conservation International regarding the funding for White Nose Syndrome research..

www.batcon.org...

reply to post by Violater1

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That's what I worry about. Prepare to see diseases like malaria and yellow fever heading into the northern states and Canada where it was previously unknown.

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