White Nose Syndrome

white nose syndrome, disease affecting hibernating bats in North America that is caused by the growth of a white fungus known as Pseudogymnoascus destructans in the skin of the nose and ears and in the membrane covering the wings. White nose syndrome is the first epizootic (epidemic) disease documented in bats and is associated with high mortality. Biologists estimated that between 5.7 million and 6.7 million bats died from white nose syndrome, with some colonies experiencing declines of greater than 90 percent, in the first six years after its detection in February 2006 at Howe Caverns near Albany, New York.