www.frontiersinecology.org © The Ecological Society of America

Since at least 2007, white-nose syndrome (WNS) hasbeen decimating populations of hibernating bats in the northeastern US (Figure 1). The syndrome was first discov-ered in four caves in New York State in the winter of 2006/2007. By the winter of 2007/2008, it had spread to 29 additional caves, in five states within the region (Blehert et al. 2009), and already seems to have spread further this win-ter (2008/2009). The condition is named for its most obvi-ous symptom, a psychrophilic (cold-loving) white fungus that grows on and in the skin of the face and flight mem-branes of bats. Affected individuals suffer severe weight loss and hundreds of emaciated bats have been found outside major hibernacula during winter (Figure 2), presumably searching for food (Blehert et al. 2009). Mortality estimates exceed 75 % in affected sites, but in some large hibernacula, nearly 100 % of the bats have been killed, and it is plausibl