A fungal disease found in caves in north eastern USA that is killing hibernating bats at an alarming rate has biologists concerned the disease might spread to western provinces, including caves in Alberta.

White-Nose Syndrome (WNS) was first detected in New York State and has now been found in caves in nine states, with a suspected case in Ontario. The fungus grows at low temperatures, especially in caves where bats live, and arouses the bats from hibernation.

As the bats wake up from hibernation, they try to remove the fungus and in doing so use energy that uses winter fat reserves. As a result, the bats end up using all of their fat reserve and don’t survive the winter.

“The mortality rates in the caves, some of them have been 100 per cent. Some of them have been 90 per cent. But they are pretty high rates,” says Lisa Wilkinson, Species at Risk Biologist with Alberta Fish and Wildlife. “What people are currently saying is that it will likely be in the west in five years. So that would include Alberta. Obviously here in Alberta we are keeping an eye on things. We are starting an education campaign to promote proper cleaning of equipment and making sure people who have been in a cave in the north east don’t come into a cave here.”

She says bats are particularly small, and have tiny fat reserves, so if they are disturbed, what little fat storage they have will get used up and they might not make it to the spring.

The fungus is not considered harmful to humans, however both humans and bats can spread it.

Wilkinson says they can’t control the spread of the fungus from bat to bat, which would be slow to move across the continent, but they can control the spread through humans.

It’s important that cavers wash their gear after entering a cave with bats, and that people who have been in caves don’t go into caves in the west with equipment with the fungus on it.

“I think that anyone who is going in between different caves and they observe that (cleaning), it can only help,” Wilkinson says.

According to Wilkinson, it is tough to know how many bats there are in Alberta, but she thinks there is a healthy population and they know about the small number of caves in which they hibernate, including one in Jasper National Park.

“There are probably other caves that we don’t know about. We are always interested in the public (knowledge), and especially the cavers’ feedback to caves. We’d like to know where those are so we can make sure that we can help to watch them and protect them,” she says.

Wilkinson says there is certainly one cave, east of the town of Jasper, that bats hibernate in during the winter.

Caves with hibernating bats are off limits to the public during the winter months and a permit is required to enter any cave in a national park.

For more information on White-Nose Syndrome and how to clean your equipment if you’ve been in a cave with WNS visit http://www.srd.gov.ab.ca/fishwildlife/wildlifeinalberta/batsalberta/.