So glad the reporter interviewed Peter for this article. I personally don't buy the mortality numbers FWS released. I want to see exactly how they came up with the 5.7-6.7 million number before I'll believe it.
http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-re ... z1kJQTkfZh
“I’ve been pushing for well over a year to update that number,” said Peter Youngbaer of the National Speleological Society, which has closely monitored the fungus outbreak. “But 6.5 million bats is the top end of the estimate of the entire population of little brown bats in the entire United States. The best I could figure out is they’re using an assumption that virtually all the little brown (bats) have been wiped out, which we know isn’t true. I know a colony in New York where there are still thousands of them. I think that number is high.”