Virginia scientists have discovered dead bats in Hamilton Cave in southwest Virginia. The bats have died of white-nose syndrome which makes the dead bats look like they stuck their noses in a vat of flour.
According to the Richmond Times Dispatch:
That white gunk was a fungus believed to cause a torturous disease in bats called white-nose syndrome.
In 2009, when scientists last checked Hamilton Cave in far Southwest Virginia, all the bats looked fine. But the mysterious fungus, new to science when it appeared in New York in 2006, is spreading quickly.
White-nose has killed more than 1 million bats from New Hampshire to Tennessee, including thousands in Virginia. At some Northeast caves, it has wiped out more than 90 percent of the bats, leaving behind little brown bones like pine needles.
