North American bats tend to roost among the fungus that kills them
The roosts, or homes, where North American bats hibernate over winter are fungal hotbeds. (Photograph courtesy of Joseph R Hoyt/)For more than a decade, bats in North America have faced a devastating crisis as white-nose syndrome has swept across the eastern United States and Canada. The fungal disease has felled millions of these tiny mammals since its first documented appearance in New York in 2006. Scientists believe the fungal culprit, known as Pseudogymnoascus destructans, was accidentally introduced from Europe—yet it has mysteriously spared bat populations in Europe and Asia.Researchers think part of the reason that Eurasian bats weren’t as stricken by the disease was that their immune systems were simply used to the fungus, but now they think they’ve landed on another potential explanation: The roosts, or homes, where North American bats hibernate over winter are P. destructans hotbeds; each year when they return, they are likely getting reinfected...