Latest WNS Map - March 13, 2013

[PYoungbaer]

Now includes Georgia and South Carolina, plus Prince Edward Island and additional counties in Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee. It's been a tough winter, and unfortunately, we know of more coming......

click image to enlarge

[John Lovaas]

Peter-

Still see the same 4 Illinois counties as previously reported(and one still coded as suspect, in spite of news reports); I would expect something in Pike County, IL, as it is across the river from Pike County, MO, and chock full of caves.

[JD]

Much More. Virtually everwhere in Tenn. they have looked they have found. One exception was Overton County. But yesterday a group of non-bat researchers saw WNS there. Photos taken, but no bats collected of course. It seems overkill to actually take a bat from all 77 Tn. counties with caves. Yet that is apparently what TWRA wants.

[PYoungbaer]

TN is still considered leading edge of WNS, although it's been there for several years now. Pennsylvania Game Commission stopped trying to get bats from everywhere once they considered the state saturated. Some southeastern PA counties still show as "clean" on the map, but only because samples weren't sought. I expect Tennessee will get to the same place at some time.

With saturation, disease prevention locally becomes moot. The focus should shift to conservation of remaining bats - i.e., how to help them survive and repopulate to the extent they can, which may not be to the same level as pre-WNS. That's an evolving question, as scientific debate about a new equilibrium - if there is one, perhaps as in Europe, will there be one, etc. is a fluid topic.

With conservation as the focus, things like protecting summer habitat and maternity roosts to maximize re-population, and avoiding hibernating bats in winter, will become higher priorities. Efforts to re-open caves could focus on seasonal visitation of bat caves, for example, and open visitation for non-bat caves.

[icave]

All the bats I've seen in SE PA in the last 6 months have been clean, no WNS. However, we haven't been looking in high count caves. Most of the smaller caves in SE PA only have a handful of bats at any given time. Still, it is encouraging that I haven't seen any signs of WNS in Lehigh and Northampton counties.