Precautions taken to protect C. Oregon bats

Central Oregon has the highest concentration of caves in the state. Bats are frequently found in caves, and because of that, the U.S. Forest Service is doing all it can to make sure a deadly disease that’s killing bats across the country doesn’t spread to Oregon caves.

Before entering the Lava River Caves in the Deschutes National Forest, Forest Service Ranger Jim Elliott makes sure visitors have gone through an orientation.

“We’re screening visitors to make sure they haven’t been in another cave, because that’s one of the ways the fungus gets taken from cave to cave is on the shoes and equipment of cavers,” Elliott said Friday.

That cave-dwelling fungus is the root cause of white-nose syndrome, a disease affecting bats across the country — mostly in the Northeast, but recently in Washington state.

Since it was first documented in 2006, the disease is estimated to have killed more than 5 million bats.

According to Forest Service wildlife biologist Brock McCormick, the fungus kills the bats by disrupting their hibernation.

“The fungus gets on the bats and irritates their skin on their nose and ears and delicate wing skin, and it ends up being such an irritant that it will wake them up from hibernation,” McCormick said.

Once the bats are awake, they quickly burn through their energy reserves — and then can’t find food to eat.

The disease is especially deadly: 70 to 90 percent of bats affected by white-nose syndrome will die.

That’s bad news for the ecosystem, which depends on bats.

“They’re all very efficient insect predators and can consume more than half their own body weight in insects every single night,” McCormick said. “A lot of these insects are insects that spread diseases to humans or are known pests for agricultural crops or for our forests here in Central Oregon.”

Research is being done on ways to stop the spread of white-nose syndrome. But until that happens, it’s important to take every precaution when visiting caves around the country, and make sure none of the clothing worn into one cave is worn in another.

“People are very cooperative, very sensitive to the deaths of bats and very protective of bats. Plus they’re concerned about the environment and they want to be helpful,” Elliott said.

For more information on white-nose syndrome, you can visit this website: https://www.whitenosesyndrome.org/