WNS Continues to Spread - Latest Map

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Re: WNS Continues to Spread - Latest Map

Postby Joseph W. Dixon » Feb 12, 2012 12:20 am

tncaver wrote:...while bats migrate slowly over a period of years...

Bats migrate annually, just like birds, they don't migrate "over a period of years".
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Re: WNS Continues to Spread - Latest Map

Postby SuckinOnSodaStraws » Feb 12, 2012 2:27 am

Boy, the East Coast sounds like a nightmare. And on the map, it looks like one too. With these closures, it's like putting half the country in "quarantine". Maybe more. I hope scientists and microbiologists are doing their best to come up with something better than labeling cavers as "vectors for bat diseases"...
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Re: WNS Continues to "Spread" (?) - Latest Map

Postby JD » Feb 13, 2012 11:53 am

To call it "spread" may be technically correct but is highly misleading. Nowhere has WNS "moved" more than a county or two from previously known sites from last year - see Ohio and KY.

In fact, what is remarkable is how little it is spreading in terms of geography. Yes, there is infilling in areas where it already exists, but that is about it.

Bet you won't hear this analysis from USFWS, huh?
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Re: WNS Continues to Spread - Latest Map

Postby BrianC » Feb 13, 2012 12:43 pm

Joseph W. Dixon wrote:
tncaver wrote:...while bats migrate slowly over a period of years...

Bats migrate annually, just like birds, they don't migrate "over a period of years".

Bat migratory habits(in the northern US) are nothing like birds migratory habits! Bats ( in WNS zones)move (migrate) to caves for winter, where birds migrate to warmer weather. The fact that bats do move in all directions to winter over, allows bats in many fronts to mingle with bats from other areas during migration, and hibernation. So WNS has moved slowly along these same migratory lines only, and with proper speculation.
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Re: WNS Continues to Spread - Latest Map

Postby tncaver » Feb 13, 2012 1:01 pm

Joseph W. Dixon wrote:
tncaver wrote:...while bats migrate slowly over a period of years...

Bats migrate annually, just like birds, they don't migrate "over a period of years".


Of course they migrate over a period of years. They migrate their entire life. That is a period of years. A lifetime is a period of years. They also migrate annually....for a period of years....a lifetime. :rofl: I'm sure that solitary WNS infected bat in Dunbar Cave migrated there. It may even have taken that bat years to get to Dunbar Cave from where ever it was born as that variety of bat had not been seen in the cave before and that cave had bat counts for years.

It has taken years for WNS to migrate as far as it has. Bats migrate and bats spread WNS. Therefore WNS affected bats have taken years to migrate as far as they have. Perhaps my statement was too simplified for some to understand. Some things simply should not need a complicated equation to explain.
Last edited by tncaver on Feb 13, 2012 2:44 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: WNS Continues to Spread - Latest Map

Postby Chads93GT » Feb 13, 2012 1:28 pm

dug open a new entrance to a cave yesterday, that had its main entrance buried and piped last sept. Fearing the bat population this cave did have was buried alive, dead, or never made it into the cave, we opened it up and traversed the entire cave and found 4-500 healthy bats clustered up. I dont know what kind they are but they have no signs of WNS. this is in Missouri in Ste. Genevieve County. I also know that there arent signs of wns in a large cave across the river in monroe co, Illinois.
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Re: WNS Continues to Spread - Latest Map

Postby PYoungbaer » Feb 19, 2012 9:25 am

Western PA sites are filling in with WNS. At the beginning of this thread, I posted the first WNS map update of this year. The PA Game Commission reported lots of emergences. Now, we have more details:

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_782368.html

The map has already been updated again. Signs point to this winter being no different than last, with WNS continuing to spread and fill in places that were just reported last year. As surveys are underway now, and WNS has usually shown its worst damage in March and April, I expect we will see a steady stream of reports over the next two months.

On the hopeful side, the annual bat survey of Knox Cave in NY, owned by the Northeastern Cave Conservancy, showed a good bat population. The final number hasn't been released (still counting noses in the photos), but the estimate was some 400 bats are there, primarily Little browns. This is up from the low of 179 in 2009, three years after WNS hit.

For those interested in more historical data, in 1986, there were 571 bats. High point was 2001, when 1,945 bats were reported. In 2007, when this cave was one of the Ground Zero WNS sites, 350 carcasses were found (population not surveyed).

In 2008, the cave was surveyed (3/12) and the bat number was 366; On 2/17/09, the number dropped to 179, the low point after WNS.

As a formal banding study, such as was done at NY's Fort Drum, has not been conducted here at Knox, we can only speculate as to the factors in the colony's population growth. However, it's clear we have survivors. Whether the growth is from reproduction, relocation, or some combination of these and other causes, is not known.

However, many nearby caves are also being surveyed, including other WNS Ground Zero sites. If those results are similar, then it's more likely to be the population stabilizing, and perhaps coming back. Still, this is another hopeful sign six years after the initial impact of WNS.
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Re: WNS Continues to Spread - Latest Map

Postby wyandottecaver » Feb 20, 2012 10:11 am

Peter,

any indication of visible WNS on the knox cave bats?
I'm not scared of the dark, it's the things IN the dark that make me nervous. :)
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