BrianC wrote:The answer to this question WILL lead to the discovery of what WNS is. Why are so many afraid of this?
i have never seen a caver with WNS........many have a white frosting around their nose and mouth; but i think that is hair......can cavers spread the spores?...certainly...by the (large numbers) they can...........cavers don't walk on the ceilings of caves...bats don't walk on the floor of caves.....(both with usually added).......TECHNICALLY i can understand the "blame the caver" mantra......but i believe it would have to account for a very insignificant number in the overall case numbers....... if any at alll......however, how many of us would allow a single aids virus in our blood stream..
.........everyone knows the european bats get wns..... but they can survive even though they have WNS.......so, i am certain north american and south american bats will have a few survivors and these immune-enough few will eventually reestablish numbers........humans might come up with something that temporarily "works" but evolution is the final solution....
.....bats get WNS and they live with completely healthy other bats they never once warn about their "std".
..i think i can figure out who is to blame here........
.....however...i don't want cavers to get off the hook so easily.......we must assist evolution......we must remove our influence from its workings.....how can we do that you ask?......i can think of only two sure ways........cavers must stop going in all caves with bats, pretty much all of them, during the months of species hibernation.....and i am not talking about human species here........after the batpolypse peaks and numbers start up the ban can then be experimentally lifted.....
.........tough stuff, i realize that..,...but we have survived the black plague, their civil war, prohibition, rock and roll, the hippies.....we can do this...we could hold all parties during the winter months, have sacrificial caves and pits that we go in anyway, have forums where we publically discuss love, caving, bats, and what all that means....i am sure cavers could come up with an entertainment in lieu of disturbing sick bats trying to survive a parasite...come on people...... lets get imaginative about assisting evolution cause we sure as hell ain't gonna stop it........lets hear some ideas.........the only thing i can come up with is lets treat the act of caving like we are making out with someone you care for.....
....my other method is just tooooooooo weird for most all educated and a slim majority of the uneducated....kinda different from the first...i'd like to think that somewhere teddy that ole rough rider is smiling................just introduce hundreds of european bats here during the prime batcopolypse.....and then deal with it afterwards...........................what?....we should probably goggle european bat-bourne viruses first..........you are right batgirl.....robin, make it so.......