Northeast Bat deaths in puzzle, alarm experts

Beneficial bug-eaters threatened in Northeast
By Dan Vergano
USA TODAY

Biologists are stumped by a plague that has killed tens of thousands, and perhaps hundreds of thousands, of bats this year in Northeastern states.

The cause of "white-nose syndrome," so named because of the white fungus that appears on bats' noses and wings, remains a mystery. And the plague is still killing bats, alarming scientists who had considered it a winter syndrome.

"The surprise for us has been finding out that bats are still dying," says biologist Susi von Oettingen of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service office in Concord, N.H. Biologists combing summertime roosts report finding six species of bats affected by the syndrome in New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut, she says. the rest image