{"id":530711,"date":"2026-03-12T05:06:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T05:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/530711\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T05:06:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T05:06:07","slug":"deadly-bat-fungus-first-discovered-in-grand-forks-spreads-to-metro-vancouver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/530711\/","title":{"rendered":"Deadly bat fungus first discovered in Grand Forks spreads to Metro Vancouver"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Deadly bat fungus spreads<a href=\"https:\/\/www.castanet.net\/reporter\/Rob-Gibson\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rob Gibson<\/a> &#8211; Mar 11, 2026 \/ 5:49 pm | Story: 603174<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" alt=\"The fungus that causes white-nose syndrome in bats has been recently detected in a bat guano (droppings) sample collected in the Metro Vancouver area.\" class=\"large_overlay\" limg=\"\/content\/2026\/3\/large\/629355054_1301850661988308_3247780884294816828_n_p4268554.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/629355054_1301850661988308_3247780884294816828_n_p4268554.jpg\" style=\"height:451px; width:640px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Photo: Wildlife Rescue Association of BC<\/p>\n<p>The fungus that causes white-nose syndrome in bats has been recently detected in a bat guano (droppings) sample collected in the Metro Vancouver area.<\/p>\n<p>A fungus that can lead to death in bats has spread from Grand Forks to Metro Vancouver.<\/p>\n<p>The fungus that causes white-nose syndrome has been detected in bat dropping samples collected in the Metro Vancouver area, the province announced Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The fungus was first spotted in B.C. in 2022 in the Grand Forks area.<\/p>\n<p>White-nose syndrome is a fungal disease that affects bats&#8217; winter hibernation. The infected bats have a hard time hibernating and often use up the energy they need to survive the winter, which leads to starvation and death.<\/p>\n<p>Despite evidence in the droppings, the fungus has not been detected in any actual bats in B.C.<\/p>\n<p>White-nose syndrome was first discovered in New York State back in 2006. Since then, it has spread to 40 U.S. states and nine Canadian provinces.<\/p>\n<p>White-nose disease has been devastating on bat populations east of the Rocky Mountains and has led to three Canadian bat species being listed as endangered.<\/p>\n<p>While some people fear bats, they play an important role in ecosystems and eat large numbers of insects, including pests that affect crops and forests. Their loss could lead to significant ecological and economic impacts.<\/p>\n<p>Humans are not affected by the fungus, but they can spread it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Members of the public can help support bat conservation by reporting sightings of bat roosts, dead bats or unusual bat activity in winter to the <a href=\"https:\/\/bcbats.ca\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">BC Community Bat Program<\/a>,&#8221; says a news release from <a href=\"https:\/\/www2.gov.bc.ca\/gov\/content\/environment\/plants-animals-ecosystems\/wildlife\/wildlife-conservation\/bats\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>While research on the disease in underway, there is currently no cure or treatment for white-nose syndrome in wild bats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Deadly bat fungus spreadsRob Gibson &#8211; Mar 11, 2026 \/ 5:49 pm | Story: 603174 Photo: Wildlife Rescue&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":["post-530711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}