Halloween is here, and that means jack-o-lanterns, black cats, and bats -- well, maybe not the bats. According to Michigan wildlife experts, bats are disappearing from the Northeast and elsewhere at an alarming rate. The culprit is a mysterious new disease known as "White Nose Syndrome." Bat experts say that it could be here within a couple of years. A white fungus covers the skin of bats during hibernation, and somehow causes them to wake-up starving and emaciated. Emily Brunkhurst, a wildlife biologist with New Hampshire Fish and Game, says they expect the disease to spread to places like Wisconsin:
Brunkhurst says the disease could come through Pennsylvania and the Ohio River valley to Indiana, which has bats that fly to Michigan.
Researchers in Michigan and around the country are working together to find the answers to try to save them. Michigan is home to nine bat species, including the three that are threatened with extinction in the Northeast, as well as big brown bats and Indiana bats.
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