Environment
Holy noses, Batman! A fungus is killing bats
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By KEVIN DUFFY
Capital News Service
LANSING – Hollywood superstar Ben Affleck is switching on the bat-signal for one his favorite species: the bat. The star of the forthcoming movie “Batman v Superman,” the film’s director Zack Snyder and the rest of the crew took time out of their long shooting schedule in Michigan to join the fight against white-nose syndrome. It’s a fungal disease that threatens the survival of insect-devouring bats that support a multibillion-dollar-a-year industry. Without bats, U.S. farmers would pay an annual $3.7 billion for pest control, according to a study by university and U.S. Geological Survey researchers published in Science. And without bats, Affleck – who portrays Batman in the movie – wouldn’t be able to don the iconic batsuit.