Quote Originally Posted by X
We should worry, as bats are one of the creatures genetically close enough to us for diseases to jump species.

I understand that current thinking is that Ebola, Marburg and Lhassa virus (which are storybook scary and disgusting ways to go) actually were harboured in the bat population before mutating to infect humans.
Ive heard that about SARS as well
Ignoring the purely altruistic idea that we should be concerned when a once vibrant species is wiped out (the Indiana bat is endangered) theres also as I previously noted,mosquitos spread disease like nothing on earth,bats keep down the mosquito population,and as X noted,diseases have been known to jump from bat to human
While Im not an expert,having worked on bat counts,I do know the experts,and right now their opinion is,they havent an inkling of a clue whats causing this.
So here we have a severe double whammy,we cant just wipe out the infected colonies(even if we could find them all,bats can wedge in to the damndest places),over a disease we dont know affects humans,because they do take care of a bug that often carries diseases we know affects humans
Not to mention having their numbers drop this fast in an area,well I have no plans whatsoever to travel to Albany NY this year,I dont own that much OFF