The numbers came in and they’re devastating. Azure Cave, Montana’s largest bat hibernaculum, hosted roughly 1,700 to 1,900 bats in a typical year. This May’s survey found 98 percent gone—just 40 bats remaining. Half of those showed visible white fungal growth from White-Nose Syndrome. For anyone who’d heard them before, it was hard to forget: thousands of bats sounding like a waterfall in the winter silence. The fungus has now been documented at Azure for three years running, but this season’s count is the clearest signal yet of what it’s doing. The bat community here included individuals 30 years old, bats that hibernated together year after year. This is the outcome we knew was coming, and it’s still hard to sit with. For everyone entering known or suspected Pd-positive sites, please stay current on decontamination protocols—dedicated gear, strict between-cave hygiene, and following FWP/USFS guidance. The fungus is in the region now. How fast it moves through the rest of our caves depends in part on us.
