But "the vast majority of cave visitation is not done by organized cavers," he said. "It's done by locals, and you're never going to reach those people. ... As soon as a gate is put up, it's vandalized."
Haskew concurred: "All Maryland hibernacula we are capable of closing to the public are closed. They have gates. Of course, that doesn't stop some people. We have had three gates that have been breached" this winter.
There is evidence the disease is also being spread by the bats themselves. The new white-nose sites in Pennsylvania are gated coal mines that are not frequented by people, Haskew said.
However it's transported, the fungus is on the move. "We don't know how far south, north or west it's going to go," Haskew said. "We don't know how many species we're going to lose."
So far, only a few species have been spared - big brown bats and such tree-roosting species as silver-haired, hoary and red bats, Feller said.
But as many as five cave-hibernating species are expected to become regionally extinct in the northeastern U.S. These include the little brown bat; tricolored bat; northern long-eared bat; the federally endangered Indiana bat; and the Eastern small-foot myotis, which is endangered or of "critical concern" throughout its range.
The small-footed myotis' largest remaining hibernaculum is in Maryland's Indigo Tunnel, an abandoned railroad tunnel in Allegany County. It is being considered for inclusion in a $4.6 million extension of the Western Maryland Rail Trail.
An environmental assessment for the trail is under way at the National Park Service. Harvey Bryant, the trail's project manager for the state Department of Natural Resources, said the federal wildlife service's admonition to cavers to stay out of bat caves in states adjoining those with white-nose syndrome "definitely will be taken into consideration" as the state formulates its input into the process.
"We're looking at the potential for having to go around" the tunnel, he said.
But concern for bats has already expanded southward. Now that white-nose syndrome has moved into the Virginias, biologists worry about the fate of southern species such as the Virginia big-eared bat and the gray bat, both federally endangered.
It's not known which southern species might be vulnerable to the fungus. For those that are, Haskew said, "it's highly likely these species will be wiped out."
leave bats alone
If you find bats that are sick, dead or behaving oddly, do not handle them. Call your county health department or the state Department of Natural Resources at 410-260-8572.
