TO GO WITH AFP STORY by Becca MILFELD, "New tools give researchers hope for fungus-ravaged US bats"
A park ranger at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky speaks to visitors, including about white-nose syndrome which infects bats, at an entrance to the cave ahead of a tour on September 29, 2024. In one of the most significant losses of wildlife in modern history, the fungus, which causes a disease called white-nose syndrome, has killed millions of the flying mammals since arriving in the eastern United States from Europe nearly twenty years ago. Two decades on, no cure exits. But scientists are finally emerging with a small panoply of possible solutions. And their research comes just as the disease -- which sprouts white fuzzy growths on the bats' tiny noses, ears and wings -- is spreading to the American West. (Photo by Becca MILFELD / AFP)