Two recent scientific publications on bats and White Nose syndrome may be of interest to Colorado cavers. Both provide some evidence that caver visitation will probably not be a primary vector for spreading White Nose Syndrome in Colorado.
The first is a Biology MS thesis from the University of Akron, by Charbel Cherfan, entitled “Determining the Environmental Sore Load of Pseudogymnoascus Destructans”. Hazel Barton was the advisor on this work. The last sentence in the abstract states “Levels of Pd found on clothing and shoe samples, and the inability of Pd to survive outside of the cave environment suggest that humans are unlikely to be effective vectors for Pd transport.”
The second is “Unsuspected retreats: autumn transitional roosts and presumed winter hibernacula of little brown myotis in Colorado”, Journal of Mammology, v. 99, Issue 6, pp. 1294-1306. The author, Dan Neubaum, is a bat biologist with Colorado Parks and Wildlife. This article states that “Surveys of caves and mines within and surrounding the study area revealed few hibernating little brown myotis, suggesting that most individuals in Colorado may instead utilize rock crevices as roosts during winter.” This correlates with the experience of most cavers here; we commonly see few if any bats at all in most caves here, with a few well know exceptions such as the Orient Mine.