Encore: White Nose Syndrome Found in Illinois

Bats are notorious in popular culture, and they play a vital role in our eco-system. Of the more than 1,000 species that exist worldwide, 13 can be found in Illinois, and six of those species are now being threatened by white nose syndrome. This hour on Focus, we’ll listen back to a conversation host Jim Meadows had with Ed Heske, a mammalian ecologist with the Illinois Natural History Survey, about bats, why they’re important and why white nose syndrome is so scary, especially for farmers. This program originally aired in March when researchers first discovered white nose syndrome in Illinois.