WNS HITS MO BATS Journal of the Wildest, Wettest, Most Scenic & Historic Part of Missouri
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Traveler River Hills
CHUBB & OZARK TRAIL HIKES PAGES 1, 24
ELK UPDATE PAGE 16 MAY 2012 “WNS HITS MO BATS” first appeared in the May 2012 issue of River Hills Traveler. Used with permission. For more information about this monthly outdoor magazine concentrating on southeast and south central Missouri, please visit www.riverhillstraveler.com and www.travtalk.net. To view a sample online copy, please visit www.rhetraveler.com. Copyright 2o12, Traveler Publishing Company.
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MAY 2012
RIVER HILLS TRAVELER -- PAGE 7
Three cases of confirmed bat WNS in Missouri
By Jo Schaper It’s bad news for Missouri bats. The Missouri Department of Conservation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service jointly announced the arrival of white nose syndrome (WNS) a fungal disease of bats, in two caves on public land in Lincoln County. The caves, like most on Missouri public lands, have been closed to visitation since spring 2010, when a bat with the Geomyces destructans fungus but not the full blown disease was found in a Pike County cave, followed shortly by the discovery of gray bats carrying the fungus in Shannon County a few weeks later. Two tri-colored bats and one little brown bat were euthanized due to visual evidence, and sent to the U.S. Geological Survey National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisc., for testing to confirm the presence of WNS. “The bats were alive when found in March,” said MDC research scientist Tony Elliott who is heading up WNS response for the department. When unseasonably warm weather triggered the early return of a gray bat summer population to Sequiota Cave in Springfield in early April, officials became concerned, but suspect samples sent to the Madison lab revealed no WNS present. WNS marches on WNS was first seen in New York State in 2006. It has since spread to 19 states and four Canadian provinces. Although all cave bat species seem affected to some degree, the highest death rates, some in excess of 98% per location, are in smaller bats. The two species found with WNS here, the tri-colored bat and the little brown bat, are coincidentally the two smallest cave bats by average body weight. They also were the most common bats in many regions, and as such not as much is known about them in terms of numbers or habits – not nearly as federally endangered species. Some estimates say as many as 5 million bats may have been lost in the Northeast in the last seven years; that number is uncertain due to a lack of baseline data on these common bats. WNS is spread bat-to-bat, and the expansion of the range of the disease follows normal bat migration patterns. Neither humans nor other animals seem to be susceptible to the fungus. WNS is here: what does it mean?
Missouri has a Bat Working Group, consisting of agency representatives, show cave representatives and select
cavers, who alerted DNR.” Tom Aley, president of the Ozark Underground Lab, and owner of Tum-
bling Creek Cave, which is home to a large gray bat colony, is not happy Continued on Page 23
WNS ARRIVES IN MISSOURI — These three bats show signs of white nose syndrome, a fungal disease caused by coldloving G. destructans. The disease spreads bat to bat during hibernation or other colonial behavior. As the bat’s immune system tries to fight off the effects of the fungus, the bat awakens early, ventures out looking for food, and most often starves to death. Two tricolor bats and one little brown bat were found in March in Lincoln County showing the characteristic white muzzle. These are the smallest cave-dwelling bats, and are of the species being hardest hit nationwide. Photos by Missouri Dept. of Conservation.
members of the caving community, although MDC and U.S. Fish and Wildlife continue to be in the forefront of actual decision-making. “We will continue to communicate and coordinate and recommend decontamination for cave visitors,” said Paul McKenzie of USFWS’ Columbia office. This group continues to recommend keeping existing public land closures in place, which is a disappointment to cavers, who had hoped a clean 2011 report would re-open some of their favorite caves. Tony Elliott of MDC said the department is looking at recommending screening procedures for show cave visitors, and recommending to private landowners that they voluntarily restrict access to their caves. “We’re looking at something like what they did in Kentucky,” he said, referring to Kentucky Fish and Wildlife’s educational outreach to known private land cave owners. Hazel Barton, associate professor of biology, geology and environmental science at the University of Akron and WNS researcher whose last assignment was at the University of Northern Kentucky, contradicted Elliott. “They didn’t do that in Kentucky – the DNR was actually positive about caving, as long as they used appropriate decontamination, because the cavers have historically been the folks that identify the new sites. All the cave sites identified this year were found by
MAY 2012
Continued from Page 7 with the approach of either USFWS or MDC. “There is nothing workable that can be done to curtail the spread of WNS,” he said. “Federal agencies have adopted unprecedented cave closure actions on the premises that: 1) they are necessary to prevent or slow the spread of WNS, and 2) cave visitors can spread WNS to other caves. “The transport of WNS via bats is a much more likely mechanism than transport by cavers, yet this bat-to-bat mechanism has been largely dismissed by those intent on blaming the spread of the disease on human actions,” he wrote. Show cave managers concerned Although official USFWS policies recommend that show caves be allowed to continue to operate, Missouri show cave managers are concerned that the “stay out of the caves” message the press often gives is having a detrimental effect on their business. “We have two caves on our property,” said Gretchen Shaw, manager
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at Mark Twain Cave, the longest badmouthing anyone, but maybe they running show cave in the state, and need a more measured response to also the nearest one to the WNS site. this.” “We open one of them only Memorial Day to Labor Day to protect our bats. What the cavers think We have no sign of it here, and we Finally, Traveler asked several cavlook for it almost daily. We’re open ers what they thought of the situation for business and we haven’t changed and how it would affect them. anything. But Jon Beard, we do have to Springfield, vice constantly tell “...I’m going to keep caving, president of Mispeople that Caves and both to help out the bats and souri we’re open for Karst Conservancy, because it is what I do.” business.” which manages Kirk Hansen, — Kristen Alvey, more than a dozen public relations caves for private Chair Chouteau Grotto landowners, said manager for Fantastic Cav“As I have been erns at Springfield put it this way: decontaminating my equipment and “We’re trying to walk that fine line. clothing prior to each cave per the USWe care about the bats. And we’ve FWS protocol, which has been shown had to appeal to the governor twice to be effective in testing by Dr. Hazel to get the agencies to back off on the Barton et al, I do not see any reason “stay out of caves” message. If anyat this time to change my projectthing, with our riding tour, our visitors oriented caving, which includes cave are totally insulated from the cave. documentation, photography, cave “If another cave has a walking tour, mapping, cave restoration and public they can wash off the trails. I’m not outreach educational field trips to one
of the caves I manage.” Scott House, Cape Girardeau, data manager for the Missouri Speleological Survey and an officer of Cave Research Foundation, said the discovery is devastating for bats, and he believes more caves will be closed to recreational caving. He thinks his agency volunteering will continue, but perhaps be more closely scrutinized. “I do not personally believe that WNS is primarily spread by humans – it is primarily spread by bats. Cavers are doing all they can to minimize the possibility of spore transmission. Completely closing caves to visitation of any kind, researcher or otherwise, has not slowed the spread.” • Kirsten Alvey, Jefferson City, chair of Chouteau Grotto, volunteer for MDC Cave Steward plan and cave owner. “I’m going to keep caving. We’re doing good work with the bat monitoring I do, and I’m good about decon before I go, but I’m going to keep caving, both to help out the bats and because it is what I do.