CHESTER, CA - For the second spring in a row, a fungus that has killed millions of bats across the country has been found in California — raising the specter of an outbreak in the state’s fragile, little-understood bat colonies.

Biologists found the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome this spring on three Little Brown Bats in the Plumas County community of Chester in northeastern California. It followed a similar detection in the same area last year.

While not dangerous to humans, the disease has the potential to devastate California’s bat populations, which are already under threat as their migration routes are blocked by wind turbines, their habitats are plowed over by urban sprawl and a host of other ecological woes, said Scott Osborn, a bat expert with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

“There are a lot of problems for bats these days,” Osborn told the Sacramento Bee.

Story Date: July 22, 2019