Group wants to close caves nationwide to protect bats

An advocacy group alarmed over the mass die-off of bats with white-nose syndrome has asked the Department of Interior to close all bat caves and mines on federal land nationwide. The Center for Biological Diversity made the request in a petition to Interior Secretary Kenneth Salazar. The center also asked for endangered species protection for two types of bat hit hard by white-nose — the eastern small-footed bat and the northern long-eared bat. White-nose is estimated to have killed more than a million bats in nine Eastern states since it was first noticed in New York in 2006. The syndrome is named for the sugary smudges of fungus on affected bats...read more