Content
Skip to Main ContentAccessibility Help
The Current

Scientist finds bananas help bats with White Nose Syndrome

It's a problem that's been ravaging North American bats in recent years... a pernicious disease known as White Nose Syndrome. We speak to a scientist who thinks he may have found a way to turn things around.
CBC Radio ·
A brown bat with white nose fungus. (AP Photo/New York Department of Environmental Conservation, Ryan von Linden)
The Aeolus Caves in Vermont is home to one of the first colonies of little brown bats to be hit with White Nose Syndrome. (USFWS/Ann Froschauer)

White Nose Syndrome has been called "the gravest threat to bats ever."  It's a lethal fungus that has ravaged a variety of North American bats, including the little brown bat.

When we first brought you this story in 2008, it had killed about half a million bats in the US. 

Now White Nose is in 26 states and five Canadian provinces. An estimated six million bats have died. The little brown bat, which only ten years ago had a healthy thriving population, is now on Canada's Endangered Species List.

Researchers have been at a loss trying to find any kind of treatment for White Nose. But now - bananas may have helped them find one. Yes, bananas.

Chris Cornelison is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Georgia State University, and part of the team that has made this discovery. We reached him in Atlanta, Georgia. 
 

This segment was produced by Montreal Network Producer, Susan McKenzie.
 

RELATED LINKS​

WNS Treated Bats Released Into Wild - Georgia State Univeristy

Killer Fungus That's Devastating Bats May Have Met Its Match - National Geographic

More from this episode