For Bats, the Future Is Spooky

This Halloween, what's spookier than ghosts, zombies or hordes of eager trick-or-treaters headed for your front door?

Try this real-life horror: white-nose syndrome, the disease that is wiping out America's bats. While bats are quintessential symbols of Halloween, these night-flying mammals are actually vital to keeping bug populations in check and protecting farm crops and forests from insect pests.

White-nose syndrome has been decimating bats for the past four winters, from the Northeast to the Mississippi River, and scientists fear it is headed for the West this coming winter. The fungus associated with the disease was already found on bats in western Oklahoma this spring!

Please join us in calling for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to declare the extreme decline of bats an emergency necessitating urgent action. With nine bat species already affected and the disease racing across the country into new caves and new populations, it's time for a real plan and real action. This isn't a late-night horror flick: This wildlife die-off is the real thing -- and without bats, we'll really have something to be scared of.

Visit http://action.biologicaldiversity.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=5067 to take action now.