Forest Service closes Colorado caves to limit spread of bat disease that has killed millions of animals

By Jason Blevins | The Colorado Sun

This spring, wildlife biologists found 32 bats on the Front Range with white-nose syndrome, up from one on the Eastern Plains in 2023. This month federal wildlife officials reported the first bat in Utah infected with the syndrome that has killed millions of bats across North America in recent years.

“This is definitely a surge. Imagine Colorado is a big rock sitting on a beach and the waves coming in around it are this disease,” said Daniel Neubaum, the species conservation manager dealing with bats for Colorado Parks and Wildlife. “That’s what we are seeing. We are probably going to see the disease trickle down from the north and I think the western parts of the state will be the last places we detect it in Colorado.”

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