‘Tis the season for most Americans to think about the needy and less fortunate. There are Salvation Army voluteers asking for your loose change. You are sure to get phone, snail mail and email socilitations to help out all kinds of causes. Siouxsie would ask you to consider helping the bat this year.

Siouxsie loves bats and can’t imagine a world without them. Bats are dark, misunderstood, and creepy (in a good and bad way). Bats are the symbol for all things spooky. Batman is the greatest superhero (and with no bats, there would be no Batman). Bats are great.

But bats are in trouble. They face the gravest threat to them ever seen.

A deadly fungus is killing bats in the Northeast. Researchers have named the disease that is causing the destruction “white-nose syndrome.”

The disease has spread throughout the Northeast and as far south as Virginia. In some cases, the disease has killed 90 to 100% of the bats in an infected area.

On Friday, Federal wildlife officials alerted states to brace for the disease to spread further west.

This is devastating news. Not only to bats and bat lovers, but to all people. Bats are the main predator of insects, and as such they play a vital role in controlling pest populations. No one knows what the ecological consequences will be if white-nose syndrome continues to destroy large parts of bat populations.

If you want to help out, donate to the National Speleological Society’s White Nose Syndrome’s Rapid Response Fund.

If you are DIY inclined, build a bat house. It won’t help the cave-dwelling bats, but it will help increase the bat population in your neighborhood.

Siouxsie is going to do her part too. She plans to celebrate this holiday season by donning her gothic finery, breaking out her witch’s cauldron and ringing the spookiest bell she can find to collect spare change for the bats.

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Posted in Animals, Death

Tags: bats, conservation, extinction, Siouxsie Law, white nose syndrome, wildlife