At least 1 million have died in the past three years from a mysterious disease, posing serious questions for our environment. But one Boston University biologist is leading the hunt for answers.
Thomas Kunz emerges from Aeolus cave in East Dorset, Vermont, with a half-dozen metal ID bands -- smaller than SpaghettiOs -- cupped in the palm of his latex-gloved hand. They're tiny emblems of death, having once been affixed to the forearms of little brown bats.
The renowned bat biologist from Boston University, who bears a passing resemblance to Harrison Ford, minutes earlier had recovered the bands while trudging, like a real-life Indiana Jones, through a slippery mud-like ooze of rotting bat carcasses, liquefied internal organs, toothpick-sized bones, piles of guano, and a strange white fungus on the cave floor.
If bats had come out of hell, it couldn't have been worse than this.
"What we saw was bat soup. There were a lot of bones of wings and skulls and emulsified bodies," Kunz says. "There were dead bats -- decomposing bats -- hanging from the walls of the cave.
"My heart sunk," he says, noting some of the bands bore his initials, THK. "It was as if I had lost family members."
It's late August, when bats are in their swarming phase, and the 71-year-old Kunz and two fellow biologists have trekked, at night, in hard rain, with heavy gear, 2,520 feet up the rugged Taconic Mountains to Aeolus -- the largest bat hibernaculum in the Northeast -- to bleed live bats and collect samples for researchers leading the hunt for clues into the cause of mysterious bat deaths like these.
Takriban watu milioni moja wamekufa katika miaka mitatu iliyopita kutokana na ugonjwa wa ajabu, na kuanzisha maswali makubwa kwa mazingira yetu. Lakini mwanabiolojia mmoja wa Chuo Kikuu cha Boston anaongoza katika kutafuta majibu. Thomas Kunz anatoka katika pango la Aeolus huko East Dorset, Vermont, akiwa na bendi sita za chuma - ndogo kuliko Spaghetti - zilizofungwa kwenye kiganja cha mkono wake wenye kinga ya latex. Ni alama ndogo za kifo, ambazo wakati mmoja ziliwekwa kwenye mikono ya popo wadogo wa rangi ya kahawia. Mwanabiolojia maarufu wa popo kutoka Chuo Kikuu cha Boston, ambaye anafanana kidogo na Harrison Ford, dakika chache kabla ya hapo alikuwa amepata bendi hizo wakati akijitahidi, kama Indiana Jones halisi, kupitia matope ya matope ya popo, viungo vya ndani vilivyobadilika, mifupa ya ukubwa wa toothpick, rundo la guano, na uyoga mweupe wa ajabu kwenye sakafu ya pango. Kama popo walikuwa wametoka kuzimu, haiwezekani kuwa mbaya zaidi ya hii. "Tulichokiona kilikuwa supu ya popo. Kulikuwa na mifupa mingi ya mabawa na fuvu la kichwa na miili iliyotengenezwa kwa emulsified, "Kunz anasema. "Kulikuwa na popo waliokufa - popo waliokuwa wakiharibika - wakining'inia kwenye kuta za pango hilo. "Moyo wangu ulizama", anasema, akibainisha kwamba baadhi ya bendi zilikuwa na herufi zake za kwanza, THK. "Ilikuwa kana kwamba nilikuwa nimepoteza washiriki wa familia yangu". "Kama vile tunavyojua, ""Kunz, mwenye umri wa miaka 71, na wanabiolojia wenzake wawili wametembea usiku, chini ya mvua kali, na vifaa vikubwa, mita 2,200 juu ya Milima ya Taconic, hadi Aeolus, hibernacle kubwa zaidi ya popo kaskazini mashariki, kukusanya sampuli kwa watafiti wanaoongoza kutafuta dalili za sababu ya vifo vya popo vya ajabu kama hivi."