WNS and Gated Caves

[tncaver]

Humor me. Of all caves and mines confirmed to have WNS, which ones are gated and which ones are not? This might shed some
light on how and where WNS got started and possibly even what caused it. Also how it is spreading. It would be interesting to have a list of gated and none gated caves with WNS and the dates showing when WNS was first detected. I guess what I'm saying is, that cavers want to know as much as possible about the syndrome as possible, and I see no reason for biologists, or
government and private agencies to be hoarding all the information.

[dfcaver]

Now remember, I'm not an official bat biologist, but I can say that every PA site that has been publicly "exposed" is a gated site, to my knowledge.

All four Mifflin County sites are gated, and have been for probably more than 10 years. Three of the sites are caves. The suspicious sites, reported as "debunked" in Fayette and Blair Counties, gated. The confirmed coal mine sites in the NE are, I assume, gated.

Pics - follow this link: http://www.fws.gov/northeast/wnspics.html

[tncaver]

Nice pics of sad bats.

[graveleye]

being handled by ungloved hands.

[NZcaver]

being handled by ungloved hands.

Yes, apparently the "handle with gloves" rule only applies to everybody EXCEPT the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

But I guess if bats are considered "game" in Pennsylvania, then the state's objective probably isn't to protect them anyway.

Humor me. Of all caves and mines confirmed to have WNS, which ones are gated and which ones are not?

That's a big list.

In the northeast virtually every cave and mine with bats has evidence of WNS. Some are gated, some (many) are not. Whether a cave is gated or not, the accessibility and human traffic flow depends also on the location and the management practices in place. There are gated caves which see plenty of caver traffic, because it's easy for responsible cavers to get keys to access them legitimately (at least until recently). There are also gated and non-gated caves which are (and have been) permanently closed to humans. WNS is present in those ones too.

It would be interesting to find out the true facts and figures, but I doubt enough raw data exists to support any kind of decent hypothesis.

[wyandottecaver]

The USFWS probably knows what caves are reported to have WNS. The locals probably know which are gated and/or access situations. I doubt anyone has combined those datasets. Even if you did, the important thing to know would be the exact dates of every visitation gated or not, and the complete caving history of each of those visitors going back to at least 2005. Im certain THAT dataset doesnt exist.

I can't comment on the eastern sites, but I know here in IN some highly restricted, closed and gated caves that hadn't had "official" visitation for 10 years *have* been visited......