A Merciless Bat-Killing Fungus Is On The Move Again. Now It’s In Texas.

"A notorious fungus that’s killing bats by the millions is now in Texas, the state with the nation’s largest diversity of bats and, in a cave outside San Antonio, one of the world’s largest colonies of a single species.

The latest discovery of the aptly named Pseudogymnoascus destructans, announced Thursday by state and federal wildlife officials, brings the number of states where the fungus is present to 33 and casts serious doubt on efforts to contain it. It also has been found in six Canadian provinces. The fungus leads to a disease called white-nose syndrome. It was first being detected near Albany, N.Y., about a decade ago.

White-nose syndrome has killed at least 6 million bats in North America, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It attacks them as they hibernate in caves and abandoned mines during winter, creeping across their bodies and causing skin lesions that lead to death. In a pattern that eventually could play out in Texas, the disease emerges two to three years after the first small amounts of fungus are detected."

Darryl Fears reports for the Washington Post March 23, 2017.