What's wrong with this picture? from the radio-show transcript
recently pointed to by a post here)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
GELLERMAN: Well if it's not the white nose syndrome that's killing the
bats, what is it?
KUNZ: Well I've got several hypotheses here.
GELLERMAN: Again, Batman - professor Tom Kunz.
KUNZ: It has to do with fat. And it has to do with insects and it has
to do with other potential reasons why insect populations around the
world are declining. You may or may not know this, but insect
populations - in particular, moths and some beetles, for example in
New York State, a little lady bug beetle is going down the tubes. So
this leads to the hypothesis there's a reduction in the number of
insects that are available to bats during the fall of the year, when
they need that fuel to deposit fat to successfully hibernate.
GELLERMAN: This is still just a hypothesis, just a theory, but one
thing is certain: bats which are critical to holding the population of
insects in check and play important roles in pollinating forests, are
dying in large numbers in New England. And bats in caves could be like
the canary in the coal mine.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
So bats are important because they control the insect population, but
they are dying because there aren't enough insects.... (And bats in
the northeastern US don't pollinate forests, though some insects do.)
-- Mixon
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