ScienceDaily (May 29, 2012) — They’re tiny creatures with glossy, chocolate-brown hair, out-sized ears and wings. They gobble mosquitoes and other insect pests during the summer and hibernate in caves and mines when the weather turns cold. They are little brown bats, and a deadly disease called white-nose syndrome is threatening their very existence.
A novel technique using stable hydrogen isotopes—a kind of chemical fingerprint found in tissues such as hair—has enabled researchers at Michigan Technological University to determine where hibernating bats originated. Knowing that could help predict and ultimately manage the spread of white-nose syndrome.
In the July issue of the journal Ecological Applications, Joseph Bump, an assistant professor at Michigan Tech’s School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, and a former undergraduate student in his lab, Alexis Sullivan, report on their use of stable hydrogen isotopes to identify the likely origins of the little brown bats that hibernate in three mines of Michigan’s western Upper Peninsula.
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