{"id":433716,"date":"2010-03-16T08:39:22","date_gmt":"2010-03-16T12:39:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.earthportal.org\/news\/?p=3203"},"modified":"2010-03-16T08:39:22","modified_gmt":"2010-03-16T12:39:22","slug":"national-zoo-criticized-over-endangered-bat-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/433716","title":{"rendered":"National Zoo criticized over endangered bat deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2010\/03\/14\/AR2010031402724.html\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/media3.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/photo\/2010\/03\/14\/PH2010031402735.jpg\" width=\"198\" align=\"left\" height=\"222\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/eenews.net\/Greenwire\/2010\/03\/15\/21\/\" >Greenwire<\/a>: Three-quarters of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eoearth.org\/article\/Endangered_Species_Act%2C_United_States\">endangered<\/a> Virginia big-eared bats taken into  captivity by the National Zoo have died in recent months, prompting  criticism of a project intended to protect the species against the  epidemic of &#8220;white-nose syndrome&#8221; currently sweeping the Northeast.<\/p>\n<p>Thirty of the 40 bats have died, and the remaining 10 are  struggling, said David Wildt, senior scientist at the Smithsonian  Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va. None of them  apparently has died from white-nose syndrome, which has killed 90  percent of some bat populations since the malady was first discovered in  2006 (<a href=\"http:\/\/eenews.net\/Greenwire\/2009\/12\/17\/archive\/20\" ><em>Greenwire<\/em><\/a>,  Dec. 17).<\/p>\n<p>Watchdog organization Public Employees for Environmental  Responsibility last week asked the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eoearth.org\/article\/United_States_Fish_and_Wildlife_Service\">U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service<\/a> to  intervene, saying the bats died because of the zoo&#8217;s &#8220;ignorance and  incompetence.&#8221; A report written in December by Texas-based consultant  Missy Singleton pointed to problems with the cage built for the bats and  criticized how they were fed and cared for.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Mishandling of the bats resulted in broken fingers, soiled fur,  skin infections &#8230; bruised legs &#8230; anorexia, capture myopathy and  death,&#8221; Singleton wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Diana Weaver, a spokeswoman for the Fish and Wildlife Service, said  in a statement that the agency is investigating the allegations.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;All information we have received from the Smithsonian so far leads  us to believe they are doing everything they can to care for the  remaining bats,&#8221; Weaver wrote. &#8220;At this time, we do not feel it is  appropriate to move the remaining bats. Moving them would cause  additional stress&#8221; (Michael Ruane, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2010\/03\/14\/AR2010031402724.html\" ><em>Washington  Post<\/em><\/a>, March 15). <strong>&#8211; GN<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"akst_link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.earthportal.org\/news\/?p=3203&amp;akst_action=share-this\"  title=\"E-mail this, post to del.icio.us, etc.\" id=\"akst_link_3203\" class=\"akst_share_link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Share This<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Greenwire: Three-quarters of the endangered Virginia big-eared bats taken into captivity by the National Zoo have died in recent months, prompting criticism of a project intended to protect the species against the epidemic of &#8220;white-nose syndrome&#8221; currently sweeping the Northeast. Thirty of the 40 bats have died, and the remaining 10 are struggling, said David [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4055,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-433716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4055"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433716\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}