white-nose sydrome

Conservationists battle disease, development and distrust to protect Illinois’ crop-saving bats
A woman looks at a bat held in her gloved hands and smiles.

Hohoff uses outreach opportunities to dispel misconceptions about bats. “Just showing people a picture of me holding a bat in my hand, they get an idea of scale,” she said. (Image courtesy of Tara Hohoff)

Medill News Service
Northwestern University
Sarah Anderson reports: When COVID-19 emerged, conservation researcher Tara Hohoff was instructed to stop handling bats. This wasn’t implemented because the bats might give her the virus, but rather because she could transmit it to the bats.