A Mysterious Disease Is Killing Millions Of Bats In North America

cheap jordan sneakers Researchers want to stop the cheap jordans for grade school sizes bat apocalypse by locating them (File) cheap jordan sneakers

cheap jordans for sale When the sun sets and nearby Marines cheap jordan sites wind down for the evening, Sam Freeze cheap authentic air jordans for sale suits up and cheap jordans app goes bat hunting. cheap jordans for sale

cheap Air max shoes Six nights a week in the summer, the cheap jordan shoes doctoral student at Virginia Tech tromps cheap jordans 12 retro through the woods at Marine Corps Base Quantico in search of northern long eared bats a species decimated by a mysterious disease in recent years. Most nights, the search comes up short. cheap Air max shoes

cheap jordans sale Between May nike air jordan for sale cheap and August, Freeze might catch fewer than 10 northerns at his arboreal outpost just off Interstate 95. Pseudogymnoascus destructans, a fungus that causes the fatal illness known as white nose syndrome, has killed more than 90 percent of these bats in some parts of North America, making the nocturnal animal hard to find. cheap jordans sale

cheap air jordan Researchers want to stop the bat apocalypse by locating cheap jordans that are real them and reverse engineering how they survived. cheap air jordan

cheap jordans from china „We have to understand what we need to protect,“ Freeze said. cheap jordans from china

This is no small undertaking. Geological Survey, Virginia Tech, Quantico and Prince William County, Virginia, whose Locust Shade Park abuts the base. Bats can echolocate, but they cannot tell when they have entered a military zone or crossed a political jurisdiction.

cheap jordans online After the bureaucracy comes the gear. Freeze’s team hangs several „mist nets,“ which look like extra large volleyball nets rising more than a dozen feet in the air. Omnidirectional microphones catch the sound of bats that show up, but elude capture. cheap jordans online

When a bat flies into the trap, it is placed into a brown paper bag and marched about 100 yards to a folding table, where Freeze has set up an outdoor lab umjordanshoes.com , cheap jordans big sizes and the examination begins.

cheap nike shoes Researchers record the weight and gender of the animals and take fecal samples to determine their diet. The bats are tagged with small transmitters affixed to their backs with surgical glue at $200 a pop as they try to bite the hands of scientists trying to help them. cheap nike shoes

cheap cheap jordans good quality jordans in china Freeze is prepared jordan retro 7 cheap for the gnawing of tiny teeth. cheap jordans in china

cheap jordans cheap retro 4 on sale „I’m wearing batting gloves, ironically,“ he said while handling an eastern red bat a species in which the fungus that causes white nose has been found, but which has not gotten sick. Once tagged, the bats are freed and tracked with a device that resembles a Speak Spell attached to an antenna. Geological Survey. cheap jordans on sale

The effects of deaths in the bat population are not fully known. Bats eat a lot of insects, which means farmers might have to battle uneaten bugs with more pesticides or risk losing more crops. On the other hand, there are many other bats and bug predators, experts say.

cheap air force „It’s tough to guess if it’s going to have cheap jordan retro 9 a long term effect on pest control in agricultural systems,“ said Justin Boyles, a professor in the zoology department at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. „Enough species are around that we may see them pick up the slack.“ cheap air force

Cheap jordans Whatever the effect on the economy, there are a lot fewer northerns, a species hit hard by white nose syndrome. Cheap jordans

cheap jordans cheap official jordans china „I cheap jordan store have literally seen this species decline before my very eyes,“ cheap jordans paypal accepted said Mark Ford, a Virginia Tech professor who oversees Freeze’s bat research. cheap jordans china

cheap jordans shoes Ford, cheap jordans 2014 who has studied northern long eared bats for two decades, said he remembers a time when he would catch dozens during mist netting sessions. Those days are done. cheap jordans shoes

cheap jordans free shipping White nose began to strike more than a decade ago, Ford said, originating in Europe and Asia. Eating away at the membranes in their wings, the disease left piles of dead bats marked with telltale white dots in cheap jordans foot locker caves where they hibernate. The sickness seems where to find cheap jordans online to wake them from their winter slumber earlier, depleting critical fat reserves and causing dehydration. When they leave the caves too soon, they can die from exposure or starvation. cheap jordans free shipping

A scientific paper published in the medical journal PLOS Pathogens called the disease „the most devastating epizootic wildlife disease of mammals in history.“ The infected animals act erraticly during winter hibernation, sometimes emerging from caves where the fungus easily spreads during the day, then not returning.

cheap yeezys Theories abound on why some bats survive: They might avoid caves, spending the winter in trees, where the white nose threat is lower because of less cramped quarters. Or some might be resistant to the disease. cheap yeezys

cheap adidas The challenge for researchers is to determine why and where they have survived cheap jordans china , and what humans can cheap jordan 12 shoes do to help them along. cheap adidas

„We have to put the bats in the context of the landscape,“ Ford said. „We have to conserve or build that environment.“

Freeze said homeowners can take actions to protect bats, such as erecting bat houses where they can sleep. When bats are found in attics, Freeze suggests calling a wildlife specialist instead of killing them.