As we live on this world, for a longer and longer time, we begin to notice that there is an extinction going on. It started way before the bees began disappearing. We have to wonder if we have done anything to either cause this problem, or speed it up? One of the problems is that we don't know why these extinctions are taking place, or if they are just the result of natural happenings. We know that there have been extinctions through known history, but we really don't know the full extent of these things. When scientists are asked about this, they often state that over 95 percent of all different types of life that have existed on this world have disappeared. A recent report has shown that bats are disappearing from the Northeast United States. It seems that a mysterious illness is wiping out these creatures, much in the same way that the honey bees began to disappear. I am not saying that it is the same illness, it probably isn't for sure, but the way it is occurring is the same.

Bee

Scott Darling, a bat biologist with the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, estimates that the fatality rate has exceeded 90 percent. And he fears the toll is rising. The main type of bat being effected right now, is the Indiana bat. It is believed that this bat will become fully extinct if this plague continues and there is no reason to believe that it will abate. The dead bats have a fungus on their bodies and for some strange reason on their noses. This is why it is believed that it is a bacteria or virus that is responsible for the deaths, but not all bats show these signs, however most of them do. One of the problems with the bats is that they are coming out of hibernation far too early and are forced to fly around in cold conditions looking for food. This certainly lowers the odds of their survival.

One has to wonder if there is any connection between the bat die out and the bee die out? In order to find out if there is anything that these two had it common, you have to do a little research. The first thing that I realized was the fact that there are some species of bats that eat the same food as bees. They drink the nectar from flowers, the same flowers that the bees get their nectar from. This made me wonder if the cause of the die out of bats and bees could be connected to the plant world. It does make you wonder if both bats and bees are eating something that is poisoning them? This doesn't seem to be the case however, as there are bats dying out that are of a species that doesn't eat nectar. This has to make one think that maybe the cause is a virus that grows in the flowers and then is spread in the air or by contact. This virus could be fatal to both bees and bats. I guess I really shouldn't get into this stuff, because there are a lot of people out there that are far more qualified to delve into the causes of bat and bee exterminations.

Bat

I can't help but wonder, if we are interfering with something in the brain of these animals with all the waves we are creating for television, cell phones, radio, microwaves, and such? I would suspect that we have far more different types of waves, that we are pumping out into the atmosphere, than we did even 60 years ago. One has only to look at the H.A.A.R.P. Project. That is where the government is sending high energy waves into the atmosphere, supposedly to test the Ionosphere. We are doing so many things that could be harmful to animals and ourselves that it is hard to figure out what is going on.

Sometimes we get lucky and we do find out what is killing a certain type of animal. The Griffon vulture lives in south Asia. A few years ago the bird was dying off. As is now, a mysterious virus was suspected. Most of the experts at the time were pretty sure that the virus was the cause, but couldn't figure out how to find where it was coming from. The investigation took years. What made it even harder was the fact that the Griffon vulture is a scavenger and eats almost anything. The birds were in bad shape and some species were near extinction. What everyone thought was a virus was nothing more than a simple pain killer. The pain killer was given to cattle and if they died and the vulture ate from them, the bird would die. It turned out the the bird was highly susceptible to the drug and it was fatal to them even in low doses. One of the reasons that it took so long to find out the cause of the vulture's demise was the fact that in India, where many of the birds were located, it is against the law to export genetic material. This prevented biologists here and in other countries, from examining the tissue of the birds.

A few years back, elk were dying at an alarming rate in the U.S. west. Hundreds would just drop where they stood and scientists couldn't figure the reason why. It turned out that nature had a hand in that one. It is difficult to watch animals die, without feeling that you want to do something to help. Many felt that way, even people who would hunt elk. The year after the great die off, people were worried that it was going to happen again to the elk that were left, but it didn't. It turned out that the elk were killed by lichen. The elk had gone into an area for the winter that they usually didn't go to. Many feel that they were trying to escape the hunters. It turned out that this area had a lichen that was poisonous to the elk. The elk had no way of knowing this.

Over the years there has been die offs of many different animals, some of which we may never even have heard of, like the tiger salamander. If man hadn't populated the earth, there would not have been as many, but there still would have been some. It is easy to see that nature has been killing off species of animals since the beginning of time. All we have to do is look at what happened to the dinosaurs. It is very hard to tell if a die off is caused by us, or is natural, but with all the altering of the planet that we have done, we certainly didn't improve living conditions for these animals. Just by virtue of us being here in such huge numbers, forces them to try and find new areas to hide in and new food sources and sometimes those food sources are things like garbage cans and commercial trash bins. Even if this doesn't put us in direct contact with animals, it doesn't help their diet and there is much in these things that could kill an animal. There will always be die offs in the animal world and maybe we will even die off someday, but there is no sense in rushing things.