Protect Bats by Closing Caves in Kentucky
- by: Animal Advocates
- recipient: Mammoth Cave National Park, superintendent Sarah Craighead
White-nose syndrome, responsible for killing some 6 million North American bats since 2006, has been confirmed in Kentucky's Mammoth Cave National Park. Mammoth Cave National Park has more than 400 individual caves.
White-nose syndrome is named after a bizarre white fuzz that grows on the nose, ears and wings of infected bats. Although white-nose syndrome spreads primarily from bat to bat, humans may also inadvertently carry around deadly spores on their shoes, clothing or caving gear. Which is why authorities close caves to slow the epidemic.
Mammoth Cave National Park claims it is closed to human access- EXCEPT, for a visitors fee, 400,000 tourists still participate ranger-led tours every year. That's not "closed to human access".
Long Cave is the park's longest bat hibernaculum, providing a home for endangered gray and Indiana bats as well as other, more common species. We ask Mammoth Cave National Park to stop all tourism and visitors and help stop the spead of this deadly disease amoung the Northern long-eared bat population.
SOURCE: http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/blogs/bat-disease-hits-mammoth-cave-national-park
White-nose syndrome, responsible for killing some 6 million North American bats since 2006, has been confirmed in Kentucky's Mammoth Cave National Park. Mammoth Cave National Park has more than 400 individual caves.
White-nose syndrome is named after a bizarre white fuzz that grows on the nose, ears and wings of infected bats. Although white-nose syndrome spreads primarily from bat to bat, humans may also inadvertently carry around deadly spores on their shoes, clothing or caving gear. Which is why authorities close caves to slow the epidemic.
Mammoth Cave National Park claims it is closed to human access- EXCEPT, for a visitors fee, 400,000 tourists still participate ranger-led tours every year. That's not "closed to human access".
Long Cave is the park's longest bat hibernaculum, providing a home for endangered gray and Indiana bats as well as other, more common species. We ask Mammoth Cave National Park to stop all tourism and visitors and help stop the spead of this deadly disease amoung the Northern long-eared bat population.
SOURCE: http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/blogs/bat-disease-hits-mammoth-cave-national-park
