New Brunswick Museum Researchers Dr. Donald McAlpine and Karen Vanderwolf have discovered White-nose Syndrome (WNS) in New Brunswick’s most important known bat over-wintering cave, located in Albert County. At least twenty-five percent of the bats in the cave have died as a result of this fungus, which grows on bats during their winter hibernation period. Since it was first discovered in New York State in 2006, this disease has spread to thirteen other states as well as Quebec and Ontario, killing over one million insect-eating bats. In some populations, the mortality rate has approached one hundred percent. This is the first identification of it in New Brunswick, and the impact of its arrival in the province is significant.