Summary
Bats were translocated between two hibernacula with persisting colonies
as well as to one hibernaculum previously extirpated of bats by WNS
(Fig. 1). Bats were caged within each site, where they remained for the
duration of winter, allowing us to quantify disease severity from the
same individuals at both the beginning and end of hibernation. In all
three sites, survival observed during the translocation experiment was
higher than that observed within the same sites during the initial
epidemic. This suggests little brown bats in persisting colonies have
unique host traits that promote surviving infection with P.
destructans . However, disease severity and subsequently survival varied
across the three hibernacula, suggesting environmental conditions
interact with host traits to ultimately drive persistence.