WNS & this warm winter.

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WNS & this warm winter.

Postby aaarg » Feb 26, 2012 9:29 pm

Please excuse my ignorance on WNS as a whole - I certainly don't keep up with news as well as I should - but I was wondering something and hoping you kind folks may have some insight or set me straight.

If WNS is known to cause hibernating bats to awake early and search for food when there is little food around... and the recent string of warmer weather (at least here in the southeast) has caused certain insects to emerge a bit early... could infected, food-seeking individuals be able to feed?

Or am I being too optimistic/naive? Does the fungus physically prevent the bats from eating - are the emerging critters not abundant enough to sustain even a low number of bats - does the fungus have a greater impact on the metabolism of the bats where, even if they had an adequate food source, their bodies would still burn through their nutrient reserves faster than normal anyway - when infected bats awake from hibernation are they even well enough to leave the hibernacula - are other factors I'm not considering coming into play?

I'm really just musing here, but I'd like to see my line of thinking either be corrected or confirmed - could this abnormally warm winter affect G. destructans infected bats favorably?
aaarg
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Re: WNS & this warm winter.

Postby PYoungbaer » Feb 26, 2012 10:51 pm

aaarg,

I'll try to answer your questions as best I can.

aaarg wrote:could infected, food-seeking individuals be able to feed?
Yes.
aaarg wrote:

Does the fungus physically prevent the bats from eating
No. The fungus attacks the skin, not internally.

aaarg wrote:are the emerging critters not abundant enough to sustain even a low number of bats
Too many variables to answer accurately. In the Northeast, we are seeing survivors who are clearly infected, but make it through the winter, and then are able to eat and heal, even reproduce. However, if they emerged too early, there wouldn't be any food available, and they would starve to death.

aaarg wrote:does the fungus have a greater impact on the metabolism of the bats where, even if they had an adequate food source, their bodies would still burn through their nutrient reserves faster than normal anyway
See answer above. However, that answer refers to spring emergence. In the South, where there may be sufficient food supply earlier, I don't know why the same dynamic wouldn't be in play.

aaarg wrote:when infected bats awake from hibernation are they even well enough to leave the hibernacula - are other factors I'm not considering coming into play?
During hibernation, say mid-winter, they are known to fly outside the hibernaculum. However, those bats don't find food, and either starve or freeze, depending on the temperature. Some infected bats are too emaciated by the fungus to arouse, however, and die in place.

One leading hypothesis is that the fungus is causing dehydration. Because it eats wing tissue, it may be affecting more than just flight. Bats wings are temperature and water regulators for the bats, and these functions seem to be disrupted.

aaarg wrote:could this abnormally warm winter affect G. destructans infected bats favorably?
Possible in terms of the availability of outside food supply, but not likely in terms of microclimate inside caves and mines. Those temperatures are far less affected by outside temperatures, so a warmer winter would have little affect on the normal year-round temperatures inside caves. Now, that's a generalized statement. Some minor fluctuations of breathing, multiple entrance caves would likely occur, but I don't think that would affect things that significantly.
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Re: WNS & this warm winter.

Postby aaarg » Feb 27, 2012 6:27 am

Ok, great! Thanks for your response.

I didn't even consider that the warm surface temperature would go unnoticed by subterranean dwellers - that seems like a big deal insofar as what I was thinking. That should have been obvious (in my defense I haven't been in a cave since... 2008. :( )
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