This is it.
Right here, see this little drip drip drip?
Okay.
And listen for just a second.
(water dripping)
This, is what has created this.
(inspiring music)
This little bit of water is the key ingredient
for creating some amazing places
that are right beneath our feet.
We know about the paths so that water makes grow
our landscapes with rivers and streams,
but how about the pathways that water carves underground?
We don't often see those hidden places.
I'm John and I'm a big fan of caves.
And I'm Amtchat Edwards.
I can talk shop about freshwater and trails and trees,
but I'm learning about caves.
I work for the US Forest Service
which stewards 193 million acres of National Forest
and Grasslands throughout the nation.
Including thousands of caves and springs.
These are all public land so if you think about it,
I work for you.
During this program we'll be exploring some caves
in the Ozark-St. Francis National Forest
in northern Arkansas.
And taking a look at some other caves around the country.
We're going to learn about how caves and karst
are pathways that connect us
as well as plants, animals, and water to the world below.
Wait a minute, caves and karst?
I know what a cave is but what about karst?
It's a landscape defined by caves, springs, sinkholes,
and disappearing streams just like that one.
You see how these tiny trickle goes into these rocks
and just disappears?
Like many places in the United States,
this area is formed at limestone rock.
Here's a map showing where to find caves and karst
across the country.
If you're interested in caves like me,
then there's probably one not too far from where you live
that you can visit.
The Nation Cave Association also has many great maps
of where to find caves near you.
Hey, here are some folks going by right now!
Well, they're going on a wild cave tour which means
they'll get to crawl around
to get close look at the caverns.
Caves are so much fun to explore!
Yes, so they're gonna go underground,
like, under all these big rocks.
Yeah, I'm gonna have to take your word
on that about being fun.
But how about you tell me about
why we should care about caves?
Well, knowing about caves and karst
is important for many reasons.
Ground water connects springs, wells,
and other drinking water sources for people and wildlife,
so we need to know about the geology of cave systems.
Caves support a unique biological communities.
They provide information about human history
and many people find that caving is really interesting.
Yeah.
I'm getting excited,
about learning more.
Alright, so, let's go check in with a couple of scientists.
'Cause they're gonna talk to us a little bit more about
why caves are such an important resource.
Let's go meet Fernando Hernandez.
He's one of our rockstar scientists.
See, 'cause he's a geologist, and rock, rockstar.
Alright, pardon the dad joke.
Can you just tell us a little bit
about the geology of this area?
Yeah, of course.
Story about this area and many areas with limestone rock
started millions and millions of years ago.
Shallow seas once covered this area,
and the shells from critters in the shallow seas
drifted to the bottom,
they mixed with mud and organic matter
that gradually compressed into layers of limestone.
Then over more millions of years,
water flowed to the limestone to carve out caves.
We got a team of geologists and hydrologists here today
studying how the water and air that we see, feel, and use
on the surface created this fascinating places down below.
As you mentioned water is the critical ingredient
that creates its features and connects with everything.
You should go and talk to Johanna Kovarik.
She's the cave and karst coordinator of US Forest Service.
See you guys inside the cave!
Hey Johanna! Hey Amtchat!
Please tell me what's going on because you're dressed
like a canary in a mineshaft.
Should I be concerned?
No, you should not be concerned.
So, what do you have there?
This is the dye.
We're going to put it in the water.
Go ahead Lima.
One way to study where the water goes underground
is to put non-harmful dye into the water.
This shows us where the water goes
and where it flows underground.
So, why do we need to know exactly where the water goes?
By understanding where the groundwater flows,
we can help to protect its cleanliness,
not only for ourselves but also for the environment.
We can understand how karst features on the surface
are connected with the world beneath our feet.
Oh, I can't wait to see where that dye shows up!
Yeah, me too.
Thanks Johanna!
You're welcome!
Also with us today is Gretchen Baker,
and she's a cave ecologist.
Now, before you get started,
I have to let you know before this,
I didn't know the difference a cave
and a hole in the ground.
So, tell me what it is that you study.
What do you do?
I and other biologists and ecologists are really
interested in bats, salamanders,
and other creatures that live in caves.
They bring nutrients into caves
and that's a really important process.
Water is a big deal as well.
We'll be checking out how water connects the biota
from the surface to the subsurface.
We also study what lives in different zones of the cave.
Cave have zones?
They sure do, should we take a look?
Yeah! Let's go exploring.
Okay, wait, wait, wait, wait,
if you're getting me in that thing,
we're gonna talk safety first.
So, what are some ways we can stay safe inside the cave?
Caves are fun to explore,
but it's important to stay safe.
So, never go underground alone.
Make sure you have the appropriate training
and gear to explore a cave.
Always go in a group with experienced cavers.
If you are interested in caves,
and many place in the country,
you can go visit right now with an experienced guide.
Here's our gear, let's suit up!
(adventurous music)
There are three zones in a cave.
This opening, where we are standing,
is called the entrance zone.
When a person pictures a cave,
they usually imagine this area and the animals,
and plants that are associated with it.
Notice the change in temperature.
Yeah, it's way cooler down here than it was up there.
When air moves in and out of the cave,
it causes changes in temperature.
And these changes create a special environment.
This is where life enters and leaves the cave.
This area around cave entrances
and sinkholes is very important.
Let's walk a little further into the cave.
Alright, after you.
This area is known as the twilight zone.
Many rare plants and animals like to hang out in this zone
which is a little further underground.
If you look further back you can see the dark zone.
The dark zone.
Believe or not,
there are different kinds of life
that live in the dark zone as well.
Let's head on back and see what's there.
(adventurous music)
Brr, it's crazy cold in here.
It is, the cave is a constant 58 degrees Fahrenheit
and almost 100% humidity year-round.
The cave temperature reflects
the average outside temperature of the area.
If you go to a colder climate or higher elevation,
the cave will be colder.
If you go someplace warmer, then that cave would be warmer.
Hey, look!
There's some light up there!
And a caver's coming down.
Is this another entrance into the cave?
Yes, there can be many entrances into one cave system.
This means there are many places where nutrients and energy
can enter the system and also many different habitats
for different creatures.
All through!
Hey, what are you doing in the cave?
I'm part of a team mapping the cave with Fernando.
Do you want to come with me to find the team,
and learn more about the cave?
Actually, that sounds awesome.
And I'm gonna go join up with my group of researchers.
Well, I hope we can find you down here,
because I can't wait to see what it is you all discover.
(adventurous music)
Oh, hey Fernando!
Where are we?
Well, John, this large area here,
at Blanchard Springs Caverns, it's called the Grand Canyon.
Remember the little trickle of water we saw earlier?
Well, it's been joined by more and more trickles of water
moving to the rock to create this large
and beautiful underground river.
Like we said,
caves form over millions of years.
Here in Arkansas, caves form in limestone rock.
Water moves from the surface, as we saw,
through cracks and pore spaces in the rock.
Surface water starts up slightly acidic,
and can pick up acids from microbes in the soil,
as it moves down into the subsurface,
creating caves and larger pathways for water to flow.
As you see above ground,
these areas are known as karst.
A word from a beautiful area in Slovenia
where this was first described.
As ground water dissolves limestone and picks up calcite,
the building block of most cave formations like these.
How water moves determines what shape these formations take.
But one thing for sure is that they take
millions of years to form.
Here at Blanchard, it takes about 150 years
for one cubic centimeter of calcite to deposit.
Which is about the size of an almond.
150 years to grow the size of an almond?
That's gonna make this taste even better.
Wait, you didn't want one did you?
So, cave formations, stalactites and stalagmites, right?
Actually I have a good way to remember these formations.
Stalactites are the one that hang tight to the ceiling
and the stalagmites, might grow big and tall one day.
That's right Amtchat.
They give us some clues about how this cave
and the world around it might have looped on the past.
As you've learned,
caves have relatively stable microclimates,
make them ideal to record the local climate of the caves.
As I've mentioned,
this cave formed from water coming down from up above.
But some caves form to water
moving up from below or a combination.
Some caves form completely differently
in other types of rock.
Like lava tubes and places like Oregon,
Washington, or Hawaii.
Caves can form along coastlines, at sea caves,
to the mechanical erosion caused by wind and waves,
where they even form in glaciers.
These type of areas are called pseudopods
because they don't form to dissolution like caves
and limestone, marble, or dolomite.
So, why and how exactly do you map caves?
I work with the cave research foundation
and we map caves so we can understand how they form
and where the water flows.
This team here is working on mapping the cave right now.
They use a laser called a disto to measure distances.
9.3 meters!
An inclinometer to measure vertical extent of the cave.
You can hear them calling out measurements
and Fernando is the sketcher.
He is making an actual 3D sketch of the cave on paper.
Let's check out this video.
Hi, I'm Malcolm Williamson.
I'm a senior research scientist
at the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies,
better known as CAST here at the University of Arkansas.
We have these systems that are known as LIDAR.
That's light distance and ranging that uses a laser beam
to measure distances and angles and records those
as measurements that can then become a 3D model.
The machine behind me here can actually record
up to one million measurements per second.
It rotates around and looks every direction
and it's really to scan a cave very accurately with this.
Our job was to go in and document everything that's been
added by people into that cave,
so the walkways, and the elevator,
and the railings and lights and things like that,
because they hope to be doing some improvements to the cave
to make it more friendly to visitors.
We will take literally hundreds of these
at Blanchard Springs from different locations
because you can't see everywhere from one location
and you can't see behind the stalactite over here,
around rock over here so we have to move the scanner around.
Then in our software,
we will automatically stitch these together
to become a very very large
file in the big model of the cave.
Today, this instrument that we've got right here,
is about the most accurately way that we can map a cave.
Back to you Amtchat.
Now, let's watch another video.
So we can see how and why some
other types of caves are mapped.
I'm Matt Covington from the University of Arkansas.
I also study in map caves.
One of the types of caves I've gotten interested in recently
is a cave in glaciers.
We went to the Arctic up to Svalbard,
and went inside of caves that form in the ice.
There we were using some new mapping techniques
that we're developing.
Actually creating a full 3D scan of the caving
instead of just making measurements and surveying
a line in sketching the features,
we create a full model.
We've been doing that initially
with a video game controller the Xbox Kinect,
which is not very expensive
compared to most science equipment.
But basically it's a really cheap 3D scanner
that we don't have to worry about destroying in the cave
in all the mud and the water.
So there's still a lot of things that we don't understand
about how caves form.
Creating these 3D models,
allows us to make really precise measurements
of the shapes of the caves.
And as a cave scientist we actually use those shapes
to read the story of the formation of the cave.
There are certain types of cave features,
their size for example,
relates to how fast the water was flowing
when the cave formed.
So we can read those stories off the walls
and start to learn more about some of the mysteries
of cave formation that scientists haven't yet figured out.
Wow, mapping caves is really interesting!
Hey, does the water look kinda green to you from there?
That means the water from above the ground
where we started this morning,
flows right through here!
That's right!
So where does all of this water go
as it continues on its journey?
Well, it continues to the underground cavern,
and resurface at springs and wells.
Like we said, that's the water that people use to drink
and for agriculture and recreation.
It's important to know where this water flows.
Wow, that is pretty interesting.
This whole geologic tour you took us on totally rocked.
Alright, hey John, let's get back and see what Gretchen
and the rest of the research team have been doing, yeah?
Alright, bye! Bye guys!
See you later! Thank you!
Hi Gretchen, we're back!
Hey John and Amtchat!
Hey, we're really deep into the dark zone right now.
The cave ecosystem is really different
from the surface ecosystem.
Where the sun helps plants grow and form
the basis of our food web.
In cave ecosystems,
the light of the sun doesn't reach very far.
However, air, people, animals, and water all bring nutrients
into the cave environment.
From underground aquifers,
which are areas that are completely filled with water
beneath the water table, to partially dry passages,
they're all full of life.
My team and I are surveying this area
to see what lives here.
Let's watch a video from The Bug Chicks
and they'll tell us a little bit more
about what lives in caves.
(upbeat music)
Jess, we have got to get out of town this weekend.
I'm getting antsy!
Yeah, I feel you on that.
Where do you wanna go?
Beach? We were just there teaching.
Mountains? I feel like we should go somewhere
we don't normally go, you know?
Okay, desert, rainforest, they sound cool, but oh!
I have an idea! I have an idea!
Let's say it at the same time! Let's say it at the same time
One, two, three!
The Poster Museum! The caves!
Yours is better, let's do yours.
I just think we haven't been to a cave in a long time.
They have troglofauna, cool ecosystems--
Whoa!
Jessica, you had me an troglofauna.
Troglofauna is the fancy word for cave-dwelling animals.
They have special adaptations that allow them to survive
in extreme environments.
Now, we're gonna have to do a Bug Chick's vocabulary
breakdown because saying cave-dwelling animals
doesn't really give you the whole picture.
Here we go.
Troglo, means caves.
And fauna, means animals.
But not all cave dwellers are the same.
There are troglo-- Xenes.
Xene means visitor.
And these are animals that can visit a cave ecosystem.
They can come and go freely but they can't spend
their entire lifecycle in the cave.
Some famous examples of trogloxenes,
are bats, pack rats, moths, and some species of beetle.
Then, there are troglophiles.
These are animals that can live outside of caves
but they prefer to be inside them.
Yeah, that's right, 'cause they love caves.
Phile means one that loves.
Examples of troglophiles include,
certain species of arachnid, crayfish, and salamander.
And finally, there are the very cool troglo--
Bites.
These are true cave dwellers.
These animals spend their entire lives inside of a cave
and can't survive outside them.
They're usually pale.
'Cause who needs color in absolute dark?
And blind.
In fact, many species have what's called vestigial eyes.
These are mere remnants of the eyes their ancestors
used to have and they're shrunken and the animals can't see.
Arthropod troglobites include
these millipedes, shrimp, and isopods.
Lots of cave arthropods have these incredible body parts
that have evolved over millions of years,
to help them thrive, eat, and not get eaten.
Speaking of millions of years,
time travel segment! Time travel segment!
A few years ago,
Kristie and I wanted to see some local troglofauna.
So, we traveled to the Oregon caves
in Rogue Siskiyou National Forest
in search of giant cave crickets.
Oh, what's in here?
So cute that I wanna kiss!
Look at those long tarsal segments.
Everything about them is adapted
to live in this environment.
These cave crickets are a great example
of morphological adaptation.
Check out those long antennae.
The extended palps and cerci,
and those incredibly back legs.
These adaptations help the cricket
sense potential predators that might be nearby.
And help them feel around in the dark.
Our day in the caves did not disappoint.
We went deep underground and got to see animals
you don't normally get to see.
Scientists don't really know much
about this species of cave cricket.
So, being in a cave is like visiting an alien planet.
But it's in our backyard!
Oh, I miss those caves!
I wanna go back!
I thought you might.
So, while that segment was playing,
I whipped up some special costumes
so that we can dress up like troglofauna.
Complete with morphological details
that are gonna help us survive.
Cosplay!
Can we go to a nearby cave?
Can we try them out?
Yes!
Now, using the measurements of the cave crickets
in the last segment,
I extrapolated using our body length,
and figured out that our antennae should be about
eight feet long.
(gasping)
Alright, now!
Ooh, vestigial eyes?
Yup! Yeah, these are mine.
Okay, and then I'll take these that are super big
to capture as much light in the dark cave as possible.
Whoa! (laughs)
Oh, I almost forgot!
Okay, our legs! (grunts)
(laughs)
(straps snapping)
Now let's drive. Ooh!
(engine starts)
(upbeat music)
Whew! Whew!
I forgot how chilly it can be in a cave!
Ooh! I brought tea!
You did? Yup!
Awesome, I brought a joke!
Okay.
What's a bug's favorite sport?
I don't know, what?
Cricket!
(laughs)
Wait, so I would be a trogloxene?
(laughs) Yeah, that's right!
We could be considered trogloxenes.
So, Gretchen, what else lives in caves?
Perhaps the organisms that are most
home in caves are microbes.
Which are microscopic organisms
that are part of our everyday lives.
The microbes that live in caves could help us
develop new medicines such as antibiotics.
Scientists are also really interested in microbes
that live in caves called extremophiles.
Because they have adapted to extreme environments
similar to what we might find on other planets.
Doctor Boston from NASA
is going to tell us more about microbes.
My name is Penny Boston.
I'm an astrobiologist and cave scientist
who focuses on geomicrobiology.
I work in the United States in the State of New Mexico
and I visit caves all over the world
and look at the microorganisms that live there.
I study what they do to the rocks and minerals,
and unique biosignatures that they may be producing
because of those interactions with the minerals.
So, that's the setting that brings me to caves.
Part of the reason that we are tremendously interested
in the kinds of life forms that we find in the subsurface,
is for a number of different reasons.
One is because they're very poorly studied here on Earth.
There's very little work
that has been done on these organisms.
So, it's an entire area of Earth biology that has only
been studied a very little bit.
That's one major aspect of it.
The second aspect of it is looking for environments
that have different aspects of them that might be important
models for life on other planets.
For example, on Earth we have hot caves,
we have cold caves, we have acid caves,
we have caves with poisonous gases in them,
all of these different kinds of examples
can inform us about how microbial life rises to the occasion
and learns to adapt and live in these kind of environments.
One of the other important aspects of caves,
and space exploration,
is that we now know that there are many caves
on other bodies in the solar system.
Particularly Mars and Earth's moon.
We have detected and mapped many of these features.
So, the potential exists for future human use
for human exploration in these kinds of structures.
The ability of the rock that is the overlying material
over a cave is very good in helping to screen out
very high energy ionizing radiation.
And this is a major hazard in space flight,
and space habitation on other planets.
These natural features because they already exist
in these environments,
provide us with an ability to actually
modify those for human use with much less payload penalty
than if we had to take all of that structure
and all of that radiation protection with us.
A very important aspect of being in the subsurface
and using caves as an analog for extreme environments
like other planetary surfaces is because it really
is psychologically a transforming experience.
When you go into the subsurface for a short trip
into a show cave for example,
you don't really feel the full extent of it.
But when you explore caves and you are in for many days,
your whole sensory abilities are different.
You don't hear the same things that you hear on the surface.
You don't smell the same smells,
you don't feel the wind on your skin in the same way.
So, you don't see the same way because you're restricted
to the light that you have with you.
This really is like entering an alien world.
It's like going on an expedition to another planet.
And so, for training people
to experience that as a preparation for operations
in extreme environments and outer space environments,
it's an invaluable analog.
We have used that in many different contexts.
I recommend it as an experience that all people
who are aspiring to go into space
or do other very difficult tasks would benefit from.
I wanna visit caves from other planets!
That would be amazing.
But for now, there's a lot for us still to learn
and discover in caves right here on Earth.
So, are you ever finding like animal bones
and things down here?
Absolutely.
Barb Beasley, a paleontologist with the US Forest Service
is going to tell us more about studying fossils.
You all can watch this while I head back
to work with my team and I hear there's a wild caving group
coming through if you'd like to join up with them.
Thanks a bunch Gretchen.
I feel like I know so much more about cave ecology now.
What a great job you have!
I'm here today to show you about one of the very important
things that are about animals that used to live in caves.
They become preserved.
Unlike all of the situations with typically
when fossils are fossilized outside of a cave,
here, caves have such a constant temperature and humidity.
Then they're preserved over a long period of time.
Some of the other animals that have been preserved
for over hundreds of thousands of years have been
mammoths and mastodons, those are elephants.
What I have here is a mastodon tooth.
Of course elephants didn't live in caves
'cause they're too tall.
So they're dragged into the caves by predators
after they were killed.
Then I have a mammoth tooth,
which is another elephant.
And then something that's unusual,
would be a giant ground sloth.
This is just its claw.
And these ground sloths lived within these caves
over thousands of years.
Why are fossils important?
They tell us about what the climatic changes are going on.
The small mammals and small animals in particular
are very persnickety about the kind of environment.
They like their home to be very comfortable.
If things change, if the climate changes,
if the temperature changes, or the food disappears,
they will actually move.
So their presence or absence within these cave layers
have been the settlements that are depositing these caves
change that helps scientists know when the fossils
are there and when the animals were there or when they left.
Wow, it's exciting to think of all the interesting
discoveries and things that we can learn about life
long time ago right here in caves.
Hey, there's the group of cavers!
Dude, let's do it.
I'm Amtchat Edwards with the US Forest Service.
My good friend John, John the phenomena.
Pow!
We've learned a ton today.
With the cave ecologist, and a geologist,
and now we kinda wanna hang out with you guys.
Is that cool? Sure!
I'm taking this group of people
on the adventure of their life.
It looks like you guys have all the proper safety equipment,
so follow me!
Sweet!
I've been a guide here for around five years.
People love coming underground to crawl, climb,
and see a world that is so different from the surface.
Our cave here at Blanchard Springs,
as well as many caves around the world,
offer a fun way to get out and explore.
There are even clubs called grottos,
where you can learn more about how to explore cave safely
and with conservation in mind.
Alright guys, let's go explore some more passage this way!
Actually, I think I see Fernando and Gretchen over there.
We really gotta catch back up with our group.
Alright, thanks for coming!
Yo, this has been a ton of fun.
Thank you Zowey! See ya!
Bye!
(upbeat music)
Hi guys!
Hey!
That was fun.
It was so cool!
I wanted to go up every passage!
Well, that's why we enjoy mapping.
We document every little passage to see where it goes.
You never know where it might take ya!
And who knows?
We might be in the longest cave in the world!
We learned that caves exist in many places
around the world and people have
always been interested in them.
The record of human activity in caves goes back centuries.
People have always used caves as pathways,
protection from the elements and places to live.
So, let's watch this video
and see how other people view 'em.
This is the Unica river located in Slovenia.
A tiny country in the center of Europe.
We will visit the mysterious origins of this river,
in a place hidden away where most people have never seen.
Today is a special day for these children.
They are visiting a place
deep under the surface of the Earth, Planinska jama.
Jama means cave in Slovenian.
(speaking Slovenian)
(camera flashes)
At the entrance of the cave,
we see the Unica river rushing to the surface over a dam,
which was once used to power a sawmill
but now is used by hydroelectric power plant.
(upbeat music)
Before going inside the visitors must first unlock the gate.
Which ensures that only people that have permission
to visit the cave can go inside.
This cave is part of an extensive cave system
where the science of cave biology was born.
And it is here that the children
search for cave animals begins.
The first stop is at a giant funnel used in the past
to study cave formation.
Next, the children notice bats.
Bats leave their droppings or guano behind.
Which is an important food source for cave critters
such as these millipedes.
(upbeat music)
Cave animals are tiny and need to be searched for carefully.
The children are observing the remains
of a slender-necked beetle.
The first cave animal in the world
to be scientifically described.
(speaking Slovenian)
Cave animals have special characteristics.
They lack body pigmentation and eyes
but instead have elongated legs and antennae
to sense their environment.
The Postojna Planina Cave system holds the world record
for the highest number of different
cave species found in it.
In the waters the children found cave crustaceans.
But the most famous animal in the cave river,
is the proteus.
An amphibian which can only be found
in this part of the world.
The cave also shows signs of human presence.
In the first part of the 20th century,
the military built many pathways through the cave,
including this tunnel through solid rock.
Before we end our visit of Planinska jama,
we can see where the Unica river begins
at the unique underground confluence
of the Rak and Pivka rivers.
We will leave you with one last
extraordinary cave experience, true darkness.
That was a great tour through the cave.
What'd you think?
You know what, actually,
it wasn't so scary at all.
Once I got underground it was pretty cool.
Plus I learned a ton so that's a win-win situation.
It's important to understand how caves are formed
and how water goes to the cave passengers.
And who knew about all the life
that's actually found in there!
Remember that little trickle of water?
That water has followed us in our journey today.
It has joined us here at the surface of this spring.
The water just shoots through the rocks,
from the underground at a rate of 10 millions
of gallons of water a day!
That's pretty awesome!
See the dye on the water?
I collected this sample on the way out.
That means that the water that is on the surface,
and trickle down to the underground,
it's connected to this huge amount of pouring water!
Sure enough, the water is green.
If there were any contamination upstream
where we started this morning,
it would've ended up right here.
It's also important to know that people are drinking
out of this water and swimming downstream.
And since I'm the ecologist and biologist,
I'll just add that this water
is also home to unique creatures.
Protecting this groundwater protects them as well.
Springs are groundwater dependent ecosystems
with unique types of life forms all their own.
While caves aren't everywhere, groundwater is.
Around the world we depend on it for drinking,
agriculture, and recreation life, fishing, and swimming.
So, let's kind of throw out some things that we can all do
to help protect our groundwater and caves.
Conserving water use is also important for many reasons
especially in areas that are really dry.
Turn off the water when you brush your teeth,
or consider taking a shorter shower.
And making sure that those leaky faucets get fixed.
Invasive species are a problem in general
but also in caves.
For example,
bat populations have been devastated by white-nose syndrome,
an invasive fungus in caves.
Let's hear more about how bats
in the United States are threatened.
Hello, my name is Jonathan Reichard
and I work for the US Fish and Wildlife Service,
where I help bats affected by white-nose syndrome.
White-nose syndrome is a disease caused by the fungus,
Pseudogymnoascus destructans, which we call Pd for short.
Pd grows in cold dark damp places like caves and mines
where bats go in the winter to hibernate.
During hibernation they allow their body temperatures
to drop to near freezing and by doing so they survive
the winter months only on energy
they have stored in their bodies.
Because there are no insects around to eat.
While bats are relatively inactive during hibernation,
Pd attacks and grows on them.
The fungus can look like a white powder on the bat's face,
which is how white-nose syndrome got its name.
It also grow on wings and other places
where it can eat holes right through a bat's skin.
In addition to damaging skin,
these infections cause bats to warm up and become active
wasting precious energy they need
to make it through the winter.
Sometimes they fly out of their shelters
looking for food and water.
But there are no insects,
so the bats freeze or starve to death.
Millions and millions of bats have been killed
from white-nose syndrome,
which as Gretchen said is caused by an invasive species
that came from somewhere else and is causing harm.
In the case of Pd,
we really don't know how it got here.
But the fungus can travel on bats as they move around
and it is possible for people who come in contact
with bats or their habitats to accidentally spread
the fungus if it gets on their shoes or clothing
and they travel to other places where bats hibernate.
No matter how it got here,
Pd spores took hold in that New York cave
and the fungus quickly spread between bats.
Now it's found in at least 33 states
and five provinces in Canada,
affecting at least nine species of bats in North America.
Thankfully other mammals including you,
do not get white-nose syndrome.
However, because Pd spores can hitch a ride
on your shoes, clothes, or even your backpack,
to protect bats it's important to clean and disinfect
your clothes and anything else with you
after you go to a place that might have Pd in it.
For more about how to reduce the risk
of spreading white-nose syndrome,
visit whitenosesyndrome.org which has more information
about the disease and what you can do to help.
Here at Blanchard Springs,
visitors walk through disinfectants to make sure
that they don't carry the white-nose fungus
on their shoes into the cave.
You see, one big thing is not to dump trash
in the caves, waterways, or sinkholes.
People sometimes use caves as places to put trash,
thinking out of sight, out of mind.
But now we all know it doesn't work that way.
I think learning about caves and cave geology
is really important.
Just like we did today,
if you don't know how things are connected,
then you may not conserve these important areas.
Hey, thank you all for all of those suggestions.
And I gotta say,
I really did enjoy my time underground today.
Thank you to you and all of our experts.
I hope you'll take some time to learn more about caves
and our resources at caveslive.org.
Remember, caves are unique and amazing places
and are connected with our everyday lives.
The more you know,
the more you will value these extraordinary places
and realize how we are all connected
both above and below the surface.
Bye.
(inspiring music)