Bat Conference, Day 1: Students Rush To Front Lines In Battle to Save Bats
Little Brown Bat This little brown bat was photographed in Vermont's Greeley Mine March 26, 2009. White-nose fungus is evident on its face and wings. Marvin Moriarty/USFWSPopSci is attending the 40th annual National Symposium on Bat Research DENVER - What's a crisis if not an opportunity? Scores of graduate students reporting new research at a bat conference this week shows the two are tightly bound. Students are working on the front lines of one of conservation biology's biggest challenges: The widespread death of bats from white-nose syndrome. The fast-moving fungus, which is expected to infiltrate much of the midwest and west this winter, is causing equally brisk priority shifts in academic institutions across the continent. Students who were initially interested in topics like wind turbines and bat social behavior are shifting their focus to white-nose research. Even seemingly unrelated topics, like new methods for examining bat guano, is at least...