Cute but contagious

摘要

Swine flu may get the headlines; but white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease that shows as a powdery pattern on the face, wings and legs of bats, is moving far more swiftly across America. Bat colonies have been decimated in at least seven states: New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. At least half a million bats have died, depriving the country-particularly in the spring and summermonths-of a natural pesticide. Bats consume huge quantities of insects: as much as their own body weight during a night aloft. The Forest Service estimates that the die-off from white-nose syndrome means that at least 2.4m pounds of bugs (1.1m kg) will go uneaten. The effects of the disease, though, go beyond an itchy evening in the garden.