{"id":639,"date":"2009-06-05T08:16:43","date_gmt":"2009-06-05T13:16:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/?p=639"},"modified":"2009-06-05T08:20:29","modified_gmt":"2009-06-05T13:20:29","slug":"massive-bat-die-off-in-nj-maybeand-another-fungus-to-blame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/2009\/06\/05\/massive-bat-die-off-in-nj-maybeand-another-fungus-to-blame\/","title":{"rendered":"Massive Bat Die-off in NJ? Maybe&#8230;and another fungus to blame!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nj.com\/news\/index.ssf\/2009\/06\/nj_biologists_fear_up_to_95_pe.html\">Star-Ledger <\/a>reports that 95% of NJ bats died off this winter from a fungal infection known as &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/White_nose_syndrome\">white-nose syndrome<\/a>.&#8221; That sounds pretty damned scary, until you read the article and find that the headline was taken from a single reported hibernaculum (cool word meaning place where critters hibernate), the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.abandonedmines.net\/Hibernia.htm\">Hibernia Mine<\/a> in Rockaway Township.  Still, that doesn&#8217;t mean this isn&#8217;t serious. While Hibernia Mine might be an exceptional case, who knows (yet) how often this is repeating?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/batsign-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Screwed\" title=\"Screwed\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-643\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Hibernia Mine doesn&#8217;t appear to be an active spelunking site, but you never know what desperate cavers might do in New Jersey. The Star-Ledger report fails to mention that the Fish and Wildlife Service <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fws.gov\/northeast\/wnscaveadvisory.html\">has asked for a voluntary moratorium<\/a> in the northeast to prevent the further spread of the disease. <\/p>\n<p>So, like the <a href=\"http:\/\/news.nationalgeographic.com\/news\/2008\/04\/080401-frog-fungus.html\">frogs<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/articles.latimes.com\/2007\/apr\/26\/science\/sci-bees26\">bees<\/a>, we have another fungal infection at the root of an animal die-off. With the bats, however, it seems decidedly linked to human activity, but there still could be a climate connection. (After all, why are people suddenly carrying fungi?) This <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencedaily.com\/releases\/2007\/04\/070418132343.htm\">press release from Cardiff University<\/a> suggests climate change is causing fungi to grow more rapidly and &#8220;fruit&#8221; more frequently. <\/p>\n<p>So, if you are doing math at home, is it:<\/p>\n<p> warmer\/wetter climate = more fungi + disease + accelerated decay (fungi hasten wood rot) = more CO2 = climate change<\/p>\n<p>Yikes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Star-Ledger reports that 95% of NJ bats died off this winter from a fungal infection known as &#8220;white-nose syndrome.&#8221; That sounds pretty damned scary, until you read the article and find that the headline was taken from a single reported hibernaculum (cool word meaning place where critters hibernate), the Hibernia Mine in Rockaway Township. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,3,18,8,15],"tags":[101,102,99,100,98],"class_list":["post-639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dumb-thoughts","category-rant-andor-rave","category-science-fandom","category-sciencegeek-porn","category-uninformed-critic","tag-bats","tag-bees","tag-die-off","tag-frogs","tag-fungus","post-preview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7V2xo-aj","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":642,"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639\/revisions\/642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}