Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I had a wonderful week full of holiday parties and cookies!

Sadly though, I have some potentially unfortunate news. It appears that the Grand Canyon National Park has begun increasing surveillance for White Nose Syndrome. This doesn’t mean that the fungus has been detected yet, however a test they ran earlier this year on a fringed bat came up inconclusive. This means that the fungus might be in the Grand Canyon. And with 22 bat species, 12 of them winter hibernators, officials can never be too careful. Officials say they have been watching for the fungus for a while now in order to understand its movement throughout the country.

Officials are asking anyone visiting the park to let rangers know if they see any bats that appear sick.

If you’d like to read more, you can find an article here.

I hope everyone has a very Happy Hanukkah and a very Merry Christmas!