spunkycarol

Researchers race against time to solve deadly bat illness – The Boston Globe

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1185143625/bctid1534625573

DORSET, Vt. – The little brown bat careened out of Aeolus Cave into the bright March afternoon. Crashing into a snow bank, it clawed up the icy mound, wings flailing wildly. Spent and starving, it fell still.

Dozens of furry bats, many shivering uncontrollably, littered the snow around the cave’s mossy entrance. Others in various stages of dying were tucked into rock crevices nearby – deeply bizarre behavior for animals that avoid light and so despise winter they can hibernate until early May.

A wildlife biologist breathing through a respirator gingerly picked up the still creature – one more critical clue to a mysterious illness that is killing the bats of the Northeast.

freeeeaky looking teeth:

Various non-sanguivorous bats are regarded as vampires by various people in various parts of the world, but true vampires – the only truly sanguivorous bats and indeed only sanguivorous mammals – are unique to the American tropics.
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