In yet another example of the cascading effects of mass extinction and pesticide overuse, the decline of bats has been linked to a sharp rise in infant deaths.
Over the last two decades, North American bats have been devastated by a fungal disease called white-nose syndrome that has massacred millions of the flying mammals. It infects their skin and causes them to awaken from their winter hibernation early, often either freezing or starving to death. The invasive fungi responsible, Pseudogymnoascus destructans, truly lives up to the “destruction” part of its name. But the collapse of bat populations isn’t just harming nature — it’s hurting people, too.
