The ‘Beautiful’ White Nose Bats
Brittaney Lazzaro
Imagine walking into a cave filled to the brim with bats. All hanging upside down, sleeping peacefully as you traverse through the cave. You happened to take a picture of one and notice, how cute, it has a white nose. What an interesting bat, I wonder what kind it is?
You go home, look up ‘bats with white noses’ and…well you find out, that cute little bat you saw? That bat has a disease known as ‘White Nose Syndrome’. This syndrome affects hibernating bats, where a fungal starts to grow around the bats noses. Scientists are having difficulties finding the cure for this disease, which has severely decimated an odd number of bats.
Would you have assumed that from this photo? Would you think right off the bat (hah) ‘that’s a bat killing disease on that little guys nose!’? Or would you think it’s just a species of bat that has an oddly colored nose? Personally, if I hadn’t looked it up myself I would’ve thought this photo would look cute.
I feel like there should be more acknowledgement towards this disease. Scientists are still trying to find a way to cure it after all with no clear end in sight. This is effecting every species of bat that hibernates during winter, making it quite the big deal for our ecosystem. While it would certainly be concerning if it was just affecting one species of bat, this is affecting all that hibernate. That, in my opinion, is terrifying.
Which is why I think it should be added to the Econ catalogue. The disease itself is almost unnoticeable; to someone who had never heard of the syndrome would they think twice about this picture? I feel by having this adorable image of a bat, curled up in the cave, with the white fungus attached to it’s nose, it would leave quite the impact. Because on one hand, look at this cute animal, on the other, this animal is going to die because of that white patch of moldy fluff on its nose.
